


Prisoner of the heart

by GiuliawiththeJ



Category: La casa de papel | Money Heist (TV)
Genre: AU, F/M, Reunion Fic, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-02-25 06:27:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 34,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22231582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GiuliawiththeJ/pseuds/GiuliawiththeJ
Summary: What if Raquel left the case after discovering Sergio's true identity, and started working as a guard at Santa Cruz Penitentiary? And what would happen if, eight months after the heist, he got caught and was sentenced to spend the next 50 years in that same prison?
Relationships: Raquel Murillo/Professor | Sergio Marquina
Comments: 149
Kudos: 259





	1. A perfect plan

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Cuore in gabbia](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22228078) by [GiuliawiththeJ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GiuliawiththeJ/pseuds/GiuliawiththeJ). 



> Hi :) This is the English version of my Italian fic "Cuore in gabbia". I had never written a fic before so I'm pretty excited and I can't wait to know your opinion. Also, I did my best to translate this chapter but English is not my native language, so please let me know if there is any error or any sentence that isn't clear and I'll correct it. 
> 
> Here are a couple of things you should know before start reading: since this is an alternative universe, Raquel and Alicia are going to be friends, and Suárez and Prieto weren't involved in the heist. Also, the story is set in a prison, therefore there will be few bad words at some points to make it more real, but I'll do my best to limit their use. Lastly, some facts are inspired by the Spanish TV show Vis a Vis.

It was a perfect plan - that's what he had told himself countless times. He had said it in his head while examining the building maps, making notes of each entrance, camera, and safety device. He had said it again while creating a file on each employee, neatly writing their names, schedules, and habits. He knew that the longest lines at the security checkpoints formed from 8:00 to 9:30 am and from 4:30 to 6:00 pm - in between José, the security officer, was looking for his soul mate by posting photoshopped pictures on Tinder. He knew that Cintia, the 32 years old brunette at the front desk, had her third coffee of the day at 11:45 every morning, which would make her head to the restroom within twenty minutes, leaving the desk unattended. He knew that Arturo Román, the manager, asked his assistant to bring him a turkey sandwich for lunch every Tuesday and Thursday, a cheese sandwich on Monday and Wednesday and a salad on Friday; in all three cases, she would step out of his office half an hour later, buttoning up her shirt.  
If there was even a cracked tile in the Royal Mint of Spain, he would have known.

A perfect plan - he had repeated it while studying the police's protocols and the tactics they had used in the past in similar cases. Of course, he also had written a file on each police officer that, most likely, would have been involved. At the top of his list, there was Colonel Castillo: he was capable, determined and counted on more than 20 years working for the secret services. Next was Ángel Rubio, a local vice inspector with several successfully solved cases, thanks to his brilliant insight. Ángel's weakness? Raquel Murillo, inspector and mediator, other than Rubio's kind of secret crush since when they were attending police academy - and not without reason, he thought, leafing through her file: she had impeccable records, strong investigative skills and, judging from the picture attached to her file, she was quite attractive. Definitely, she would have led the investigations.

A perfect plan - he had said it one more time recruiting the criminals who would have helped him. He had chosen them among the most talented hackers and the most skilled robbers. Despite they had all different stories and personalities, there was a thing they had in common: none of them had anything to lose. And when you have nothing to lose, you're willing to risk everything. It had to be a perfect plan - he had told them so many times while in Toledo. He needed them to believe in that plan as much as he did. He had told Tokyo a few extra times since she was the hothead of the group, the one that could screw up the whole thing with her impulsiveness. Berlin didn't seem considering the importance of details either, so he had talked to him too. He wanted all of them to understand that he wasn't trying to be cocky by calling his plan <> because that's what it truly was. That was a perfect plan: 9 criminals, 2400 millions of euros printed in 10 days, 64 hostages safely released at the end of the operation, the street in front of the Mint bursting with reporters talking about the inability of the authorities to solve the case, everybody in Spain with their eyes glued to the tv. The greatest heist in history.  
If his plan worked, they wouldn't have to worry about money, or anything else, for the rest of their lives.

He didn't expect he would be the one to jeopardize the whole operation. Perhaps, he could have foreseen it if he had taken a better look at Inspector Murillo's picture - then he wouldn't have approached her, he wouldn't have spoken to her at Hanoi's bar, he would have found other ways of gathering information: bugs, microphones, cameras. But he didn't.  
A few months later, she had crushed into his life and, for the very first time, his plan didn't seem perfect anymore. It didn't seem perfect when he kissed her lips and wished not to do anything in his life other than that, nor when he was making love to her and the rest of the world just had faded away. It didn't seem perfect when the very thoughts of leaving her and not be able to hold her ever again were turning his stomach.  
One day, she had discovered his true identity and had left. She hadn't reported or arrested him - she had resigned from the case, taken her daughter and her mother and left as if trying to erase what had happened between them. She had asked him not to go after her, and he didn't. Maybe, he had wanted to respect her decision, maybe it was just fear, or maybe it had seemed wise to him to return all his attention to the heist. Maybe, the fact that she had left wasn't a negative, after all. Maybe, it still could have been a perfect plan. Maybe...

*****

"Sergio Marquina, you have been charged with conspiracy, burglary, illegal possession of firearms, false imprisonment, illicit manufacture of banknotes and money laundering. You are sentenced to 51 years and 6 months in jail. No sentence reduction is applied, as you refuse to collaborate with the police on the localization of your accomplices, who are currently still in hiding."

The judge's words were still echoing inside his head. Eight months had passed since the heist that made him a millionaire and since he and his brother, Andrés, aka Berlin, had escaped to South East Asia. It had been a week since Andrés died and he was arrested. And now there he was, handcuffed, in a police van, heading to Santa Cruz Penitentiary.

*****

A red-haired policewoman was seated at the counter in the prison's entrance hall.

"Name?" she asked with her eyes on a list she was consulting.

"Sergio Marquina."

The woman looked up at him in surprise. Then, a smirk stretched out on her face while she raised her hand to grab the lollipop in her mouth.

"Look at our new celebrity! What an honor." She bowed her head. She obviously was making fun of him, he thought, so he didn't answer.

Agent A. Sierra, so said the tag pinned to her uniform, labeled an empty plastic tray with his name and leaned over to place it on the counter.

"No personal items are allowed from this point, that includes your phone, wallet, watch and everything else's in your pockets. You'll have them back after serving your sentence."

While Sergio placed his belongings on the plastic tray, the woman handed him another one containing a pile of orange clothes which, he found out, was his prison uniform. For the record, four uniforms: two to be worn during the day, one for the night and a sports one. There was also underwear, a set of sheets and a clear plastic bag containing personal care products.

The redhead looked at him with a mocking smile. "As much as I would like to ask the man who kept the Spanish police in check for eight months to undress and spread his legs, I'm afraid that prison policy requires a man to search you."

He felt himself blush, not knowing what to answer to that. Damn. How was he going to survive in jail if he wasn't even able to respond to this kind of provocations from a woman? Well, in his defense, there was a woman whose provocations he knew how to handle. The fact is that she made everything easier and natural, all thanks to the light in her eyes, her smile, her kisses. He shook his head. He had to stop thinking about her. She wasn't there and would never be.

He was accompanied to the next room, where two more inmates were waiting already. The police officer, a man this time, asked them to undress. Slowly, Sergio took off his clothes, hesitating on his underwear. He stood silent, waiting for his turn while trying to cover his private parts with his hands. His cheeks were burning red with anger and embarrassment.  
Once they had worn their uniforms, the three of them were escorted through a series of corridors which, he thought, must have led to the cells. On their way there, he took advantage of his position at the end of the line to take a closer look at the men in front of him. The first one was tall, slender, with dirty blonde hair; he didn't seem to have a lot of muscle mass and, as Sergio had noticed earlier, he had quite damaged teeth - he probably was a drug addict. But Sergio was way more worried by the second one: he was slightly shorter than him, but with enough muscles to be twice as wide; he wore shoulder-length hair, had his cheeks covered with a thick dark beard and a skull tattoo on his arm; he seemed to emit grunts instead of words. Sergio made a mental note to stay as far away as possible from that man.

"Hey, Murillo! I have something for you!". The voice of the policeman abruptly shook him from his thoughts.

His ears were playing a trick on him - there wasn't any other explanation. He was so obsessed with her to hear her name everywhere, not to talk about her voice: during the past eight months, he had heard her voice every single day, while walking down the street to the market, while having lunch at his favorite restaurant or even in the silence of his room.  
But this time, he saw her. He watched her walk out of what it looked like the monitors' room, wearing the same black uniform of the police officers he had seen so far. Was he hallucinating? Was he going crazy? He blinked a couple of times, but she was still there. He blinked again, nothing changed. She was walking in their direction.

She smiled at her coworker. "Hi, Suárez!"

Her eyes scanned the new inmates until they stopped on him. The smile on her face froze.

"You worked at the case of the robbery at the Mint, didn't you? Look who's here.", Suárez pointed at him. "This son of a bitch was caught in Germany last week and..."

Sergio couldn't hear a single word of what Suárez was saying. His eyes were still on Raquel's, who was looking back at him with an expression he couldn't read. Was she mad? Satisfied with the view of him in a prison suit? Was she going to have an emotional breakdown? Or was she about to slap him? But most of all, was she going to run from him again? He didn't know. After what seemed forever, he watched her look away, shaking her head as if trying to push her thoughts out of it.

She returned her attention to Suárez, who was still talking. "Ehm...excuse me, what were you saying?"

"I was saying that you should be the one to walk him to his cell. I can't imagine how you feel about him being here after all these months...", he said. His body radiating self-satisfaction, almost expecting a gesture of thanks from her.

Raquel took the clipboard he was handing her. "You're right, you really can't imagine what it feels like."

They followed Raquel to the end of the hallway and into a large room, which was divided into two areas by a metal grill as tall as the ceiling. On this side of the room, two policemen were seated at the security desk, having coffee and discussing the previous night's Real Madrid - Barcelona soccer game, while an inmate, accompanied by a third agent, entered a corridor on the left indicated with an arrow and a sign that said "Visitors room". They walked to the other side of the grill through a door, to the part of the building where prisoners were allowed to move freely. Raquel gave them a short tour, pointing out the cafeteria, the bathrooms, the yard, the laundry room, and the infirmary. During the whole time, Sergio couldn't restrain himself from looking at her and think that she looked beautiful, even prettier then he remembered.  
At last, she stopped in front of a small counter that was provided with a security window.

"This is the shop.", she explained. "Depending on the job you'll be assigned to, you'll receive a certain amount of credit to spend here. You can buy gums, cigarettes, flip flops and the other things on that list." She pointed at a piece of paper taped on the wall, then she looked up at them. "Any questions?"

Sergio had lots of questions - unfortunately, none of them were about the turns in the kitchen or the flavors of the candies sold at the shop. So he stayed silent.  
When no one answered, Raquel started walking in the direction of the cells. They went up a flight of stairs, turned right, then left, until they reached a hallway on whose walls were painted orange numbers in large letters. Raquel stopped about halfway and, after consulting the detainees list again, pointed to the cell to her left.

"Vargas and González, cell 134. Marquina, follow me."

Sergio swallowed hard when he realized he was going to be alone with her. That was his occasion to talk to her. He quickened his pace, seeing that she was already moving quickly down the corridor.

He tried to draw her attention to him."Raquel..."

She ignored him.

"Raquel, I...", he started again, panting slightly because of the effort to keep her pace.

"You can call me Inspector Murillo."

Her voice was sharp but calm. Sergio knew her too well not to notice that she was struggling to control herself.

A minute later, she stopped again. "Marquina, cell 205."

Sergio stood in front of her, looking at her face, striving to find the right words. She was determined to avoid his gaze by staring at something behind him.

He took a deep breath and tried one more time. "Raquel, please...I just want to talk to you."

Finally, she looked up at him. The fierce in her eyes made him wish he hadn't spoken.

"There's nothing to talk about. I already told you all I had to say, eight months ago."

She paused and he knew she was trying to measure her words. Then she continued. "Listen, I don't know how you ended up here and what strange ideas you've got into your head, if this is part of one of your distorted plans or just a twist of fate, but I'm going to ask to be transferred to another penitentiary, first thing in the morning. Until then, you're a prisoner here and I'm a guard. Nothing more, nothing less."

Suddenly, he felt sick. He knew that she was done with him already - she had made it very clear the last time they had seen each other, at the house in Toledo, right after she had handcuffed him to the ceiling. Despite that, when he had seen her right in front of him, he had thought, even just for a second, that they could be together and happy again.

"Did I get myself clear?"

He nodded.

"Sergio Marquina, cell 205.", she repeated. Her eyes fixed in his for a moment, before turning around and leave.

In that exact moment - standing in front of his cell, and watching Raquel walk away down the hallway of Santa Cruz Penitentiary - he realized something: his plan had been everything but perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are highly appreciated <3


	2. How dare you!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I want to thank Corny_Cornflakes, who proof-read this and was incredibly helpful! :)
> 
> I'm sorry for taking so long. I had lots of ideas for this chapter and kept changing my mind but here it is. I tried my best to imagine Raquel's reaction to Sergio coming back in her life but it was harder than I thought. Though I'm not completely satisfied with it, I hope you like it. :)

Raquel couldn't sleep that night - it was nothing new, to be honest. She was struggling to sleep for months because her thoughts were always diverted towards him. During the day it was easier to keep her mind busy: Paula was there to distract her and make her laugh, and when she was at school, her mother was the one to require her attention. Marivì's condition was getting worse quickly and needed constant attention, so she had decided to hire a person to assist her while she wasn't home. Raquel wasn't thrilled about the idea - she would have preferred to take care of her mother herself- but she had to spend most of the day at work, and drive Paula to and from school, and to dance class three times a week. When she had the chance, she would go home during the break to have lunch with Marivì, but inevitably she spent ten hours a day away from home and she couldn't live in constant fear of her mother getting hurt or leaving the gas on. Instead, when she wasn't working, she tried to compensate for it by sitting with her for long chats over a cup of coffee or taking her and Paula on day trips so that both herself and her daughter could enjoy as much as possible of Marivì's good days. 

Her days were so full that there was no room for Sergio in her thoughts. But at night time, when her mother and daughter were sleeping and she was alone in her room, her mind was emptied of everything that had occupied it during the day, and his face made its way overbearingly.

At first, she had tried to distract herself by watching her favorite movies on TV, reading a book, taking a hot bath before sleeping; she had even enrolled in the gym and worked out on a regular base to be too tired in the evening not to sleep. But no matter how exhausted she was or how desperately she tried not to think about him, every time she closed her eyes, he was there. And it was exasperating. For a short time, she had found comfort in sleeping hugging a pillow, with her leg bent on it, as she had done with Sergio's body the last time they had slept together, in that same bed. She imagined the pillow was his chest while burying her face in it in a try to remember his scent. She had been wondering where he was and if he would have come back to her one day, although she had told him not to. Until one morning she had looked at herself in the mirror and saw a tired face, swollen eyes and dark circles as a result of yet another sleepless night, and she had decided she has had enough - it was time to be in control of her life again. She had stored the pillow on the high shelf of the closet and had gotten a prescription for sleeping pills, although she had never liked this type of medication. For about three months she had led a normal life, had stopped crying and was able to sleep up to five hours a night - not ideal yet, but a huge improvement for her. 

However, that evening was going differently. Raquel was replaying the events of that day in her head, again and again, as she tossed and turned under the sheets. She wasn't crying - she was angry. How did he dare to reappear in her life after all the efforts she had made and continued to do to forget him? Did he think that she would be pining over him forever and welcome him with open arms? Certainly, she had spent months dreaming of him and imagining how his lips would feel on hers again, but she was fine now. She was finally getting back up and slowly beginning to live her life again. Right when she thought she had got past her pain, he came back. And she would have to see him every day and pretend that she didn't care, as she slowly fell back into the abyss she had desperately tried to get out from. He had no right to do this to her.   
  
She sighed as she turned on her side and reached for her phone. It was 3:08. _Great_. She was supposed to be on duty in five hours and her brain wasn't turning off. She decided to make herself a cup of chamomile tea, so she got wrapped in her dressing gown and went down the stairs as quietly as she could. 

At the first sip, a pleasant sensation of heat invaded her stomach and then radiated to the rest of the body. She clasped her hands around the warm cup and held it close to her lips while drinking in small sips. Her eyes were closed as she inhaled the aroma that rose from the infusion, trying to rearrange her mind. She was still immersed in her thoughts when steps from the stairs forced her to open her eyes. 

"Honey, what are you doing up this late?". Her mother entered the kitchen, she seemed to be in a good state. 

Raquel looked at her apprehensively. " _Mamá_ , are you feeling well? You should be in bed." 

"I got up and saw that your bedroom door was open.", she explained as she sat down next to her daughter. "But let's talk about you, what's wrong?" 

It always amazed her how the illness didn't affect her mother's ability to read her emotions. But as much as she wanted to, she could not tell her the truth, because it would have meant telling her that Sergio was a criminal. So she decided to tell only a part of it. 

"I was thinking about Sergio.", she confessed with a shrug. "Salvador, mom.", she added at her mother's confused expression. Se had tried several times to convince her that his name had always been Sergio, but she was often confused. 

Marivì nodded. "Oh sure, Sergio. My memory is a little bit crazy." She smiled as the memory of him surfaced in her head. "Have you heard from him?" 

Raquel hesitated, then shook her head. 

Marivì took her daughter's face in her hands and smiled sweetly at her. "My darling, enough of all these worries. If you miss him, and I know you do, why don't you give yourself another chance?" 

"Because he hurt me.", she replied, lowering her gaze. "And I'm tired of suffering because of men." 

"Good people happen to be wrong, too. But then they regret it, that's the difference. Sergio is a good man, Raquel. He is not Alberto." Marivì paused as if trying to gather her thoughts, then continued: "Do you remember when you got skates for Christmas as a child? You fell dozens of times, you were covered with bruises and you were so angry that you threw the skates in the trash can." 

Raquel laughed at that memory. "The next morning I retrieved them from the garbage and found a banana peel inside one of them, it was disgusting. " 

"It was." Marivì laughed heartily. Then she turned serious again and squeezed her daughter's hands. "The point is that in two days you were skating around the house and didn't want to take them off even at bedtime. You drove me crazy!" She giggled. "But you were so happy and proud. That's my Raquel. If you truly love this man, go and take him back as you did with those skates and be happy. _Mi hija_ , life is too short to have any regrets. " 

Raquel raised her hand to wipe away a tear. "Thanks, _mamá_." 

Marivì smiled at her. "I think it's time for both of us to go back to bed, it's very late." After kissing her daughter on the forehead, she headed upstairs.

Raquel got into bed thinking about her mother's words. She would have liked to think about it longer, but because she was calmer after that conversation, partly due to the effect of the chamomile tea, she finally fell asleep. 

***** 

The following morning, Raquel arrived at work a few minutes late. Paula had a math test that day and had categorically refused to go to school. It had taken ten good minutes and the promise of an ice cream cone in the afternoon to convince her to get in the car. Usually, Raquel wasn't so condescending, but with three and a half hours of sleep, negotiation had seemed to be her best option. She changed quickly and went to her workstation. Today she was on shift in the monitor room again, together with Alicia who, fortunately, wasn't a strict person and would have let her get away with being late.

"Raquel, what happened to you?" Asked Alicia, as soon as Raquel entered the door - she had noticed the dark circles under her eyes. "Wait, let me guess. Suárez didn't let you sleep, hm?" 

Raquel rolled her eyes. She would have preferred a lecture on punctuality. 

"How many times do I have to tell you? Suárez and I are just friends." She seated herself next to her in front of the monitors. 

"He doesn't seem to think the same way. You would be a nice couple, I can already see you at your wedding." Alicia chuckled. 

She rolled her eyes again. Alicia was a good friend, but she was the kind of woman who had neither husband nor children, and who liked to drink and gossip. 

"Speaking of men, did you see who came in yesterday?" 

_Please, not him_. Raquel thought. 

"Sergio Marquina!" 

_Exactly._

"He's even sexier than in the mugshots, which says a lot. But he surprised me, you know? To be in charge of such an ingenious operation I expected him to be swaggering and authoritative. Instead, he blushed at my jokes! I wonder if he's good in bed... " 

Raquel couldn't help feeling annoyed by that last statement. "Do you realize you're talking about a prisoner?" 

Alicia shrugged. "Well, you know I like bad boys!" 

After hearing some other comments about Sergio, Raquel decided it was time for a dose of caffeine. 

"I'm going to have some coffee, I didn't have any this morning. Do you want some too?" 

Alicia nodded. "Yes, please." 

When the door closed behind her, Raquel let out a sigh. The last thing she wanted was to hear her talk about him. After the conversation with Marivì, she hadn't had the opportunity to think about what to do yet and was not convinced that her mother was right. After all, he had approached her intending to extort information from her, and he had succeeded. It had been a studied move, making her trust him was all part of his plan. Yet those days they had spent together were, for her, the most beautiful after so many years. Had he pretended the whole time? She thought back to when she had used the polygraph on him and how he had repeatedly said that he loved her without making the machine beep. Was it the truth or was he just good at lying? She had never been so confused. The only way to find out would have been to ask him, but she didn't want him to know he had such a strong influence on her. 

She walked to the employee kitchen and made two cups of coffee, but didn't return immediately to the control room. Instead, she sat down and began to leaf through the newspaper she found on the table while stirring her coffee to make the sugar melt - she needed five minutes alone before her ears returned to being bombarded by Alicia's chatter. She had just leafed through a few pages when she found an article entitled "Robbery at the Mint. A phone call brings the investigators on the trail of the fugitives.". She frowned and began to read. 

_After the arrest of Sergio Marquina, aka The Professor, head of the gang that carried out a 984 million Euros heist at the State Mint last October, the authorities continue to hunt down the other members, who seem to have vanished into thin air together with one of the hostages, Mónica Gaztambide. Let us recall that three of the nine members of the gang are currently deceased, the last one only last week. Andrés de Fonollosa had been suffering from a degenerative disease for several years and died the night between June 15th and 16th in a hospital in Hamburg, where he was to receive treatment from a renowned German physician. Among the fugitives were also Silene Oliveira and Aníbal Cortés, while the identities of the other three robbers remain unknown. In this regard, rumors have revealed that the police have received a phone call in the last hours, saying The Professor was seen in early November near Casablanca, Morocco. The man on the phone claims to have rented a house to Marquina and his wife for a few days. The identity of the woman remains unknown._

The article went on saying how this could be a turning point for the investigations and where, according to the journalist, the other members of the gang might be hiding. Raquel was still holding the newspaper, unable to react, while the words _to Marquina and his wife_ echoed in her head. She read the sentence a few times to make sure she read it correctly. It was correct. _His wife_. Suddenly, she stood up. She had to know what that sentence meant, even if meant making a fool of herself in front of him. In a minute she had crossed the corridor, passed the grate and entered the cell number 205, fire running through her veins. 

"You, out. I need to talk to Marquina.", she said briskly to a man seated at the cell tiny table. Noticing his hesitation, she added: "Now. Unless you want to spend the night in solitary confinement." 

Sergio, who was lying on one of the two bunk beds, sat up abruptly as he heard her voice and almost hit his head against the upper bed. He stood up. 

"Ehm...hi?" He said awkwardly, fixing his glasses. 

Raquel cut him off. "Save it, Sergio. What the hell does this mean?!" She slammed the newspaper on the table. 

Sergio raised an eyebrow in confusion. He picked the newspaper up and started reading. As he read his expression became more and more worried, while Raquel was pacing the room. 

Sergio sat down and ran a hand through his hair. "Damn. I have to communicate with them. If the police manage to ..." 

Raquel stopped abruptly. "If I were you, I would worry about something else first.", she said as she leaned towards him, her hands on the opposite side of the table. "For example, what does your wife say about you fucking a policewoman?!" 

The realization made its way on Sergio's face. "Ah...that. It isn't true." 

"Excuse me?" Raquel couldn't understand. What wasn't true? 

"That isn't true.", Sergio repeated quietly. "The woman they are talking about is Nairobi. We pretended to be a couple at the moment of renting a house in Casablanca, where we spent three days waiting for the ship that would take us overseas." 

Raquel looked at him in surprise but didn't say a word, waiting for him to continue. 

"Two weeks had passed since the heist. During this time we had created false trails and paid people to report seeing us in States whose borders we would have crossed easily, such as Portugal, France, Belgium, and Italy. While the police were wasting time looking for us in Europe, we reached Morocco, where Nairobi and I passed ourselves off as a married couple and rented a house with fake documents. We decided to be the ones exposing themselves because, as you know, Tokyo's and Rio's faces were known to the police - we didn't want to risk it. The man we rented the house from didn't know that six more people slept in it. Now that I've been arrested, my photos must have been spread outside of Europe and that man had probably called the police expecting a reward." 

Raquel was silent for a while, analyzing what he had just told her. Then, she asked: "How do you know I'm not going to tell my fellow inspectors as soon as I leave this room?" 

Sergio looked up at her. "To say what? That they were so stupid to spend weeks looking for us in Amsterdam and Paris while we were sunbathing in Casablanca? I think they already know that. Or will you tell them there were eight of us instead of two? You have no evidence, none of my guys were seen and I made sure to remove all traces of DNA before leaving. I didn't tell you anything that would be useful for investigations." 

Raquel didn't know what to say. This man was a fucking genius and, however unusual it might be, this caused a shiver to run down her spine and end between her legs. She used all her strength to reject this thought. 

"About this woman... Nairobi... okay, she isn't your wife. But what about your girlfriend, lover, a one-night stand?" 

He shook his head. 

"Are you telling me that nothing happened between you two?" 

Sergio shook his head again. "Never. Neither with her nor with anyone else." He pointed to the chair in front of him. "Would you please sit down?" 

Raquel did as he asked. 

"Raquel...", he hesitated fearing that she would correct him as she had done the day before, but it didn't happen. So he continued: "Raquel, you have been the first and last woman I've been with in years, as well as the only woman in my life I care about. I've already told you, but I will repeat it a thousand times more if you need me to: nothing that happened between us was planned. I swear to you, I've never thought I would develop feelings for you, but it happened, and I don't regret it, because those few days spent with you were the most beautiful of my life." 

Raquel's heart was beating so fast that she thought it was about to explode in her chest. That was all she ever wanted to hear, but at the same time, she was terrified. 

"I waited for you every day for months at the coordinates I gave you. Every day I hoped to see you coming, but it never happened." 

"What coordinates?" She raised her eyebrow. 

He looked at her in surprise. "Raquel...have you ever looked at the back of the postcards I gave you that day at Hanoi?" 

"I haven't looked at them again...", she admitted shooking her head. Then, noticing the dejected expression on his face, she added: "...but I still have them." 

He nodded. "Then, when you go home tonight take a look at the back..." He was about to say something else when Raquel's radio transmitter turned on. 

"Raquel, where are you? I've been waiting for my coffee for half an hour already." Alicia's voice rang metallic through the device. 

Raquel brought the radio transmitter next to her mouth. "I'll be there in a minute." 

She got up and looked at Sergio, not quite sure what to say. What do you say to your ex-boyfriend, who happens to be a detainee at the prison you work at and has just implied that he has feelings for you, especially if you have a thing for him too? 

"Well...see you." She raised her hand to wave him goodbye, he returned the gesture. 

"Ah, Raquel?" 

She turned around. 

"Did you ask to be transferred?" 

A shy smile stretched on her face. "Not yet." 

As she left the cell, Raquel felt a sensation of weight on the bottom of her stomach she couldn't decipher. 

***** 

The first thing Raquel did when she got home was to retrieve the postcards from a drawer in her room. In the last few months, she had been tempted to look at them several times, but she never had - she was sure it would make her suffer too much. She removed the postcards from an envelope and turned them one by one. On the back of each one, black lines and numbers had been drawn and as she put them together they formed coordinates: Palawan, in the Philippines. Sergio had waited for her there. She couldn't believe that she always had the opportunity to know where he was and never noticed it. Even more astonishing was the fact that he had left a piece of information in her hands that could compromise his freedom. He trusted her. She sank into the pillows feeling the tears begin to cloud her vision - tears of pain mixed with deep anger. Anger towards herself for not having looked at those damned postcards months ago. Anger towards him for being a fucking criminal, for making her suffer like no one else in life, except for Alberto. Anger because they could never live the love story they deserved. Anger because she hated him more than anyone else in the world and she loved him with equal strength.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading <3 Kudos and comments are always appreciated!
> 
> Also, I'll be traveling this week so I'll not be able to write. I'll update as soon as I can. :)


	3. Life in jail

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: This chapter is going to have explicit content regarding drugs and drug dealing. If you don't feel comfortable reading about this theme I suggest you not read this chapter. Also, there is going to be a short graphic violence part at the very end, if you don't feel like reading it I suggest you skip the last paragraph. 
> 
> A big thank you to Corny_Cornflakes who proof-read this chapter and provided some great ideas <3

Sergio was lying on his bed, staring at the rusty springs that supported the bed above his. He was lucky that no one slept on that bed or he would risk ending up squashed underneath it. In general, it was fortunate that the cell wasn't full - the thought of sharing the room with three other people was enough to give him creeps. At the moment, he had only one cellmate and hoped to keep it like this as long as possible. Well, one cellmate and a half, to be exact. His gaze shifted to the second bunk bed at the opposite side of the room where Sofia was sleeping, curled up on a neatly folded blanket. He didn't know how his roommate had managed to smuggle a ferret into prison, but it seemed that the police weren't bothered by it, so Sofia was officially living with them.

A week had passed since he was imprisoned, and sharing the room wasn't the only thing he hadn't gotten used to yet. The rigid schedules, the uniforms, the shared bathroom were all things that disturbed him, but above all was the total lack of privacy, of which the toilet inside the cell to be used at night was the evidence. Not to mention having to shower with only a dirty plastic curtain separating him from the pack of naked men in the bathroom. Under normal circumstances, he would have already planned a way to get out of that place, but this time it wasn't the case: Raquel was there, and he wouldn't leave without trying to fix their relationship. Not again, not now that fate had offered him a second chance. For a moment he had also thought of taking her with him, but it seemed kind of a long shot considering that they hadn't spoken to each other in three days. Sergio was dying to know if she had looked at the postcards, but he didn't want to pressure her - he was observing her though. Every time he walked through the gray corridors of the prison, he looked around hoping to spot her somewhere and inwardly noted her schedule trying to recreate a mental outline of her shifts. His mind was so obnubilated by the thought of her that he had spent whole hours staring at the ceiling, attempting to interpret her gestures and figure out what was going on in her mind. He had considered different scenarios, spacing from the most pessimistic of him dying old and lonely, to the most optimistic one - and his favorite - in which he was making love to her at the shadow of a palm tree in their private tropical island. So no, he wasn't going to leave, not yet. 

"Professor, I have it."

Marseille walked through the door and Sofia hurried towards him, squeaking with joy as he stretched out his arm allowing her to climb up to his shoulder. He glanced down the hall to make sure no one was looking at them, then handed him an old phone.

"Any problems?"

Marseille shook his head. "It was expensive since it's more difficult to get an untraceable phone than a regular one, but there's nothing you can't find for a large sum of money."

"Well, tell him he'll get paid as soon as I'm out of here."

Marseille nodded and stood at the entrance of the cell to check the corridor. When he was certain that no one could disturb him, Sergio dialed the phone number of the person in charge of emergency communications within the team.

"It's The Professor. I need you to deliver a message to the gang as soon as possible. Tell them the police have followed our steps to Casablanca and that it isn't safe for them to remain at their current locations. I want each of them to move to the coordinates I am going to give you and to be ready to move again to confuse their tracks. And, for God's sake, tell them to be discreet. I may not be able to get them out of trouble."

He pressed the 'end call' button and hid the phone where the guards wouldn't find it. He couldn't do anything now but wait and hope that the others would receive his message.

***

"Beef or fish?"

Sergio looked at the two options on the cafeteria counter in disgust. Neither of them looked inviting, it rather seemed that someone had already chewed both foods and spat them back on the tray. To be honest, Sergio did not feel like entirely excluding this hypothesis. He shivered at the thought.

"I think I'll just have a few of those," he said pointing at the large tray of broccoli on his right. "And some bread, please. Do you have whole wheat?"

"Do you think this is a fucking restaurant?" The mustached man behind the counter grunted as he poured a spoonful of broccoli on his tray, next to two slices of bread. "Next."

Sergio sighed. He grabbed a chocolate pudding from the dessert counter before sitting down at one of the few empty tables. He was about to start eating when he saw it and stopped instantly. A stain on his fork. Totally unhygienic. He looked around, and nobody seemed troubled by the fact that they were eating unfresh food from germ-soaked utensils with a high probability of contracting infectious diseases.

He was busy rubbing his napkin on the fork when three men sat down at his table. He looked up.

"It looks like the noob is picky." The man who had just sat in front of him pointed at the fork in Sergio's hand, causing sneers from the other two.

Sergio adjusted his glasses. "I believe that _paying attention to basic hygiene rules_ is a more pertinent description."

The three burst out laughing.

"I have heard a lot about you, Marquina, but you are way more fun than I expected."

"Who are you and what do you want?"

"You can call me El Diablo." His gaze was serious now. "You see, for a gentleman like you, prison can be a dark and threatening place, with people ready to tear you to pieces at every corner. I came to offer you my protection. Let's say I have a little business, and I am respected enough to make sure that nobody disturbs you during your stay here. But first, I need you to do something for me. "

"What kind of thing?" Sergio frowned.

"Every Thursday evening the kitchens are supplied with food for the week. As it happens, tomorrow there will be a ... let's say a special order", he explained with a grin. "80g of cocaine ready for resale that you will bring to me. You must operate during the night, after the count, so that the kitchen staff won't accidentally find the drugs the next morning."

Sergio shook his head. "At night, access to the kitchens is forbidden, and the cells are locked. How am I supposed to do it?"

"I'm sure you'll come up with something. Don't you have the reputation of being a genius?" He shrugged, then pointed to the pudding on Sergio's tray. "Are you going to eat that?"

He watched as El Diablo put a spoonful of pudding into his mouth, while the wheels in his mind spun frantically in search of a solution.

"Why are you so sure that I will accept?" He asked eventually with a serious look on his face.

"Because you will prefer to have me as a friend than as an enemy. You may be The Professor out there, but here you are nobody." He stood up, and so did the other two. "Take some time to think about it, we'll come back to you tomorrow for an answer."

El Diablo tossed the empty pudding container on the table and walked away, followed by his henchmen.

***

The cold shower jet hit his face and helped him clear his mind. He couldn't agree to compromise with that man. First of all, accepting once would have meant having to do it the following times, too - because, of course, there would have been a second, a third and a fourth time. He had no experience in living in a prison, but he was smart enough to know that promises were worth nothing in there. Perhaps El Diablo would have protected him from the others, but, in return, he would have been subjugated to him, and he couldn't allow that. Second, the risk of being discovered by the guards was high, and he wasn't in the right position to draw attention to himself. Once things were settled with Raquel, he wouldn't remain in prison, and he needed to keep a low profile to have more chances of success in escaping. Getting involved in drug trafficking was not the best way to do it.

On the other hand, it was obvious that El Diablo would not have accepted a refusal. However, there was no reason to panic at the moment. He still had 16 hours before having to give his answer, and 5 hours before the cells were closed for the night - it was enough time to inquire about this guy and find out how dangerous he truly was. With a little bit of luck, he would have found a way to defend himself.

Sergio rinsed off the shampoo from his hair and turned off the tap. With his eyes still closed, he reached out over the plastic curtain to grab the towel he had left hanging on the metal hook next to the shower. He touched the wall for a few seconds without being able to find it. _I'm sure it was here,_ he thought. He opened his eyes and leaned over the curtain. The towel wasn't there. He looked down to make sure it didn't fall on the floor - anything. _Shit._ He scanned the bathroom, and it was quite crowded. He took a deep breath and hurried out of the shower, his hands on his private parts, in the direction of where he had left his clean clothes. After all, they were all naked, nobody would have noticed. His eyes widened, though, when he arrived at the bench he had placed his neatly folded uniform on and found nothing. He frantically looked around.

"Uhm, excuse me, have you seen my clothes?" The young boy to his left shrugged.

"Have you seen my clothes?", he repeated to the two men to his right. They shook their heads.

The other prisoners had started to move their attention to him as they muttered and pointed at him, some of them sniggering.

"Has anyone seen my clothes?" He raised the tone of his voice, feeling the panic growing inexorably within him.

***

He didn't know that on the other side of the wall, at that exact moment, Raquel was walking down the corridor for the routine round with Alicia, who was updating her on the umpteenth disappointing date she had the night before.

"Can you imagine? I asked him to come in for a drink when he took out his cell phone and told me to wait because he had to catch a Pokémon in my driveway!"

Raquel was trying to restrain herself from bursting into a hysterical laugh. "On the plus side, next time he's going to take you to the playground and ask you to play tag, a bit of workout will do you good!"

"Oh, shut up." Alicia hit her on the shoulder, making her laugh even more. "I was planning another kind of workout! I just don't understand how..." 

She suddenly fell silent and frowned. "What the hell is that?"

Raquel, still covering her mouth in an attempt to hold back the laughter, looked up at what seemed to be a pair of underpants hanging from the ceiling. They exchanged a confused look and started getting closer to it. They were only a couple of meters away when the bathroom door opened, and Sergio came out visibly upset and, above all, totally naked.  
At the sight of the two women, Sergio froze. He was still wet from the shower, but he felt a sudden burst of heat all over his body, his cheeks on fire. He stood there for a moment, trying to cover himself as much as he could with his hands not knowing what to do. Apparently, they didn't know how to react either as they were staring at him with a questioning expression on their faces. 

"Marquina! What the hell are you doing?" Alicia spoke first.

"I'm...I...ehm...", he mumbled, then managed to say: "I took a shower and...and forgot to take clean clothes with me." Raquel frowned.

"Then I assume you had fun hanging your underwear around right _before_ to get in the shower." Alicia raised her eyebrows and pointed to the ceiling. 

Sergio looked up and widened his eyes, taken aback by the sight of his underwear hanging down. 

"Listen, I understand you want to be in the spot-light but this is a bit extreme. We'll have to report you and..."

"Alicia, it looks to me that he was the victim of some nasty joke. Let's let him go get dressed." Raquel intervened, and he gave her a thankful look.

As Sergio quickly walked to his cell he could hear Alicia saying: "Oh, Raquel, you're a party pooper! I mean, how often does it happen to see such buttocks?!"

***

He had never felt more humiliated. He had always had a conflicting relationship with his own body and nudity had always caused him embarrassment, but having to walk in public without anything on him was way past his breaking point. It was like when you were a teenager and had nightmares of being at school, and suddenly realized that you don't have any clothes on, but a hundred times worse because it wasn't a dream. Moreover, Raquel had seen him. Not that she hadn't seen him naked before - they had slept together twice during the heist - but it had been a completely different context. He had turned and tossed in bed for hours, overwhelmed by waves of shame. Also, he couldn't help but think that the disappearance of his clothes wasn't just a joke or the result of the boredom of some prisoners, as Raquel had suggested. It had been a message, a small demonstration of how El Diablo could make life difficult for him - a taste of the humiliations and harassment he would have had to endure if he refused to collaborate with him, and who knows what else he would be able to do.

Later that day, once he had gotten dressed and calmed himself as much as he could, he had managed to obtain information about El Diablo with the precious help of Marseille. He had been sentenced to 30 years for the murder of his wife and her lover, and for being involved in arms and drug trafficking- he still had 22 years to serve and run the main illegal trade business inside the prison. He was a powerful figure which meant that Sergio wouldn't find anybody willing to defy him. Not in a short time at least, and he only had a few hours left before having to give his answer. He was alone. 

It was late at night when he had the feeling that someone was watching him. He held his breath. _It's just your imagination_ , he thought. _The cells are locked, there is no way prisoners could walk around._ He waited a few minutes for the sensation to pass, but it only got worse. Somebody was there. He slightly turned his head toward the other bed - Marseille was sleeping. With a shaky hand, he reached his glasses on the shelf next to his bed and put them on, then slowly raised his head. And there he was - the guy that was with El Diablo the day before, at the other side of the metal grate that worked as the cell's door with his hands gripping on it. He was staring in his direction with a creepy grin, his face and light hair illuminated by the feeble moonlight filtering from the window.

"Good morning," he said, and his grin widened. "How did you like the joke with your clothes? I found it hilarious." 

Sergio swallowed hard. His mouth was dry, and his muscles weren't responding.

"Your time is up," continued the guy with a suddenly serious expression on his face. "What did you decide?"

Sergio couldn't see any other solution. He cleared his throat in an attempt to find his voice again. "I...I'll do it."

The boy nodded. "That's a wise decision, Professor."

***

It was 10 p.m. on Thursday when Sergio got up from his bed and headed towards the door that separated his cell from the corridor. He grabbed the universal card key that Sofia had stolen from a guard and stretched his arm to the keypad on the other side of the grid. The door opened with a soft click. He was out. Without being able to hear anything other than his heartbeat, he sneaked to the kitchen along the path he had studied earlier that day, making sure to avoid all the cameras' visual range. He passed the cafeteria, walked through the kitchen door and reached the walk-in fridge.

He didn't know he was holding his breath until he let out a long sigh, as his hands gripped on the three small packs of white powder. He had it. Now the only thing he needed to do was to sneak back to his cell and pretend that nothing happened. He was about to replace the cover on the rice container the drug was hidden into when the light turned on.

"What's going on here?!"

He sighed in relief as he heard Raquel's voice. He turned around to face her. "Thank god it's you."

She lowered her gun as she recognized him. "Are you saying that I wouldn't be able to turn you in?", she asked, her eyebrow raised. 

He couldn't help but crack a smile. "I would never dare."

Silence fell between them. It was the first time they were alone after the conversation about the postcards and neither of them knew what to say. They stood there for a few moments, staring into each other eyes until she shook her head and frowned.

"What are you doing here?" Her question brought him back to reality, and he silently cursed as her gaze moved to his right hand. She looked at him with her eyebrow raised, demanding an explanation. "I need you to give me that."

"But..."

"You're out of your cell without permission which already makes you a good candidate for solitary confinement, don't force me to report you."  
She stretched a hand towards him, her palm up, and he had to give up. She was holding the drug in front of him. "Sergio, what the hell is this?!" 

He sighed. "Cocaine." 

"I know - I'm not stupid", she replied impatiently. "I mean, what are you doing in a refrigerating room with three packs of drugs?"

He hesitated.

She put her gun back in the holster attached to her belt and took a step closer. "Sergio, I don't believe you had suddenly turned into a drug dealer, nor that you are going to consume it yourself. That just doesn't suit you." Another step, her eyes fixed in his. "And I think this is connected to whatever happened the other day in the bathroom." She was only a few steps from him now. "But I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

He seemed to consider it for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. I'll tell you everything."

And so he did. They were sitting on the kitchen floor, side by side, their back against the wall, as he told her about El Diablo and his threats, the ruse with his clothes and the other attempts to intimidate him. Raquel listened attentively. When he was done, she turned her head towards him, a firm look in her eyes.

"I'll talk to my superiors about him and make sure he doesn't bother you anymore. Maybe I can even get him transferred to the higher security branch..."

He widened his eyes in alarm. "Please, don't."

"I will not allow him to keep bullying you. You took a huge risk coming down here tonight and were lucky enough that nobody other then I found out. You might not have the same luck next time."

"Raquel, please." He looked into her eyes. "He's dangerous. I'm afraid to know what he could do if you get in his way. He won't care that you are a guard. I'm not letting you take this risk for me. I... I couldn't live knowing that something happened to you because of me."

She bit her lower lip. As she did so, she saw his gaze moving down to her mouth and her heart skipped a beat. _God, she wanted to kiss him so badly_. His eyes moved back up and met hers, and she could read in them the same desire. After what seemed like forever, he moved his head forward a few inches, his breath accelerated. 

With her surprise too, she pressed gently her hand to his chest making him stop.

"Sergio, wait."

He looked at her in confusion. "I'm sorry, I thought that...I'm sorry."

"You thought right." She said quickly. "Just, let me talk." She took a deep breath and continued. "I want to kiss you. I want to kiss you so badly right now, but I'm not sure that I can bear the consequences of it. I don't know if I would be able to maintain a relationship in prison, I don't even think it is allowed. And if we kiss now and then can't be together, I'm just not going to survive. The months I had spent without you were a real nightmare and... and I'm not strong enough to go through it again."  
As she spoke, a single tear ran down her cheek. He wiped it away with his thumb and, instead of withdrawing his hand, he kept it there caressing her face softly. The pain in her eyes made his heart ache.

"Raquel, I swear to you, I'm ready to escape from this place with you right now if you ask me to. We'll go far away and buy a house next to the ocean..."

"In Palawan?"

He smiled broadly. "In Palawan. You just need to say it."

She tilted her head to the side and gave him a shy smile, her eyes shining. "I'll think about it, I promise."

They kept talking softly until they heard a noise of footsteps coming from the hallway. They exchanged a quick look, eyes wide open.

"Raquel, where are you?"

Suárez was a few steps away from the kitchen door when Raquel came out of it. "I'm sorry it took me so long. I wanted to check the food stocks to make sure there wasn't anything suspicious among them."

As she closed the door, she glanced at the kitchen counter behind which Sergio was crouched down, and couldn't help but smile.

***

The next morning, Sergio woke up with a feeling of lightness in his stomach. He had slept only two hours and had dark circles under his eyes, but he couldn't care less. She wanted to kiss him last night. That was the only thing he could think about. He got up from the bed and got dressed with a dreamy smile on his face while Marseille gave him suspicious looks once in a while. However, Sergio was glad that he didn't ask any questions because he wasn't sure he would be able to keep his happiness for himself. 

He had breakfast and then headed to the prison's library - he wanted to have an escape plan ready for when she would say yes. _If she says yes_ , he reminded himself. He had imposed himself to keep his feet on the ground, but it looked harder than he expected.

As he took the secondary corridor that led to the library though, he faced a way bigger problem. El Diablo was leaning on the wall, a cigarette between his index and middle fingers, and was accompanied by three other inmates. One of them was the light-haired boy that had visited Sergio's cell two nights earlier.

"Marquina, I hope you slept well." El Diablo grinned as he turned his head to look at him. "I believe you have something for me, don't you?"

Sergio froze. He had been so focused on Raquel that he had completely forgotten about the drugs. His heartbeat fastened as the memory of Raquel storing it into the pocket of her uniform appeared in his mind.

"Actually, I don't."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I don't have the drug. I... lost it", he lied. "I heard a noise and hurried back to my cell. When I checked my pockets it wasn't there anymore. It must have fallen on the way."

"You'll agree with me that it's very disappointing when someone doesn't complete a task you assigned him."

Sergio swallowed hard. "I have money", he said quickly. "Lots of money. I can repay you as soon as I get out of here. What do you think of ten thousand euros?"

El Diablo considered it for a moment. "It sounds fair. Unfortunately, life is not all about money, and I'm not sure that it will completely compensate for the deep disappointment I'm feeling right now. I trusted you for this task... and you let me down. Some wounds take time to heal. The good news is that I happen to have another idea that could make me feel better."

He gave a sign to his henchmen and in a second they were rounding Sergio. Two of them took him by the arms, immobilizing him.

"No, please", he cried out. "I'll give you twenty thousand euros!"

El Diablo gave another sign to the third man.

"Thirty thousand!" 

The man started hitting him. First his stomach, then his face. Sergio's glasses fell on the floor as he was fighting to break free from this horror, screaming for help. A fist hit him on the nose, and he could taste the blood in his mouth. Then another one, and he couldn't open his eye. A knee in his stomach, he couldn't breathe. He started coughing. He felt his muscles cede one by one as he dropped to his knees and keeled over. He could feel the kicks on his ribs, his back, his legs. Then it stopped. He stared at the dirty floor with the only eye he could open, knowing that he had to get up but he was too tired to do it. _I'll get up. I'll do it a minute_ , he repeated in his mind. _Just another minute._ Until he couldn't see anything other than darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated <3


	4. Asleep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this chapter I need to thank Nala147 for the medical advices and of course Corny_Cornflakes for proof-reading (more than once!) and for sharing some great ideas with me :D

Raquel quickly crossed the hospital hall and entered the large elevator that led to the wards. She pressed the 4th-floor button and waited impatiently for the doors to close, her fingers fiddling nervously with the ring she was wearing. When Alicia had called her on the phone earlier that day and told her what happened, she couldn't believe it. Her brain couldn't process the fact that while she was safe at home, smiling against her pillow like a teenager and unable to sleep despite the night shift, he had been beaten by some scoundrels and was now in a hospital bed. By the time she had found out, more than six hours had passed - he could have died, and she wouldn't have known. This thought was driving her crazy. 

Thankfully, the elevator didn't stop at any other floor, and a few seconds later she was walking apace through the aisles, her heartbeat accelerated. She passed a large door with the sign "Intensive Care Unit" on it and approached the nurse at the main desk. 

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Sergio Marquina." 

"Sure, let me check." The lady typed something on the computer, then shook her head and looked back at Raquel. "I'm sorry, no one is allowed to see him other than the doctors and the police." 

Raquel reached for the police badge in her purse and handed it to her. "I'm agent Raquel Murillo of Santa Cruz Penitentiary, where Mr. Marquina is currently convicted." 

"Oh, I'm sorry Mrs. Murillo," the nurse said after looking at the badge. "Then you can go ahead to the end of the aisle and turn right. It's the second door to the left. The doctor should be talking to your colleague at this very moment." 

Raquel thanked her and followed the directions she had given her. As she turned the corner, she saw her colleague, Ruiz, talking to a tall doctor in his sixties. 

"Hi, Pablo." 

"Raquel! Isn't today your day off?" 

"I heard what happened from Alicia and..." _Shit_. How could she justify the fact that she was visiting an inmate on her day off without implying that she was personally involved with him? 

"Well, you know I was trained as a detective, and working at the prison can be boring", she said with a crooked smile. "Besides, I want to find out the responsible. Whoever it is, he's a threat for both prisoners and police officers." 

Ruiz nodded, then introduced her to the doctor. "He was about to update me on Marquina's condition." 

"As I was saying, the patient's condition is not as critical as we thought at the beginning. The X-Ray evidenced two left-sided ribs fractures that luckily didn't cause any damage to the internal organs. The punches on his face and stomach had cost him several bruises and bumps, but the exams didn't show any other fracture or internal bleeding. The only thing we are concerned about is a minor case of cerebral edema, which means that there's an excess of fluid inside his brain pressing on his temporal lobe." 

Raquel's anxiousness, together with her low medical knowledge, was causing her troubles keeping up to all this information. The only thing she wanted to know was if, eventually, he would be fine. 

"Will it cause any permanent damage?", she asked. 

"We can't say it for sure, but it's unlikely. The edema interests a very small area, and we are keeping it under control with specific treatments. He's in a medically induced coma at the moment that will help his brain to heal..."

Raquel exhaled loudly. "A coma?" 

"A medically induced one. We will interrupt it once the fluid in his brain is reabsorbed, which might take a few days. It is the best option to prevent any eventual damage to his cognitive functions. Trust me, I've faced way worst cases than this, and the fact that he doesn't need surgery is great news, it means it's not that serious." 

Raquel nodded. _Breath. He will be fine._

After the doctor left, she entered Sergio's room and closed the door. As she saw him, she covered her mouth with her hand, and her eyes widened. He was lying in bed with an intubation tube coming up from his throat, a feeding tube into his nose and an IV in his arm. She walked closer and looked at his face. The area right next to his right eye was swollen and purple with bruises, along with his nose and the left side of his jaw. Tears started running down her cheeks. 

"I'm sorry, Sergio. I am so sorry", she sobbed. "It is all my fault." 

Raquel took his hand between hers and sat on the chair next to the bed. 

"If I hadn't confiscated the drugs from you, El Diablo wouldn't have hurt you. Because it was him who did this to you, wasn't he? I'm sure it was him - that bastard. I had to expect it ... I had to help you, to protect you. Instead, I went home and ... and just left you there to face him all alone, and look at you now..." Her voice was cracked, her body shaking. The tears were running down to her chin and falling on the sheets. "God, I am so sorry." 

She covered her face with her hands as she cried. It was too much. It had been less than two weeks since he had come back into her life, and during this time she had hated him, loved him, then hated him again. She had wanted to slap him as hard as she could, and then kiss him so passionately that only the lack of air could have pulled them apart. He had asked her to escape with him, and the next day he was in a coma. The whole situation was just too much to deal with. 

When she had calmed herself down, she reached for a tissue and wiped the tears away. Her eyes were red with crying. She took a couple of deep breaths and squeezed his hand. 

"You will be okay, do you hear me? You'll be fine." She sniffled, then stretched her hand and removed a lock of hair from his forehead. "I'm going to take care of you. I'm right here." 

*****

"I'm here, Sergio." She turned to face him with a bright smile on her face, her golden hair waving in the sweet breeze of the Philippines. She got up from the wicker sofa she was sitting on and walked into his open arms. 

"I missed you." 

"I missed you too." 

They kissed slowly, savoring each other's lips. He loved the sweet taste of her lips and the warmth and softness of her kisses. He could spend hours just kissing her again, and again, and again, without ever getting bored of it. He felt light sparks going through his body every time their tongues touched, and couldn't help but think that he was the luckiest man on earth for the simple fact of having her in his arms. 

He heard her moaning with disappointment as he separated their mouths, but he had to look at her. He needed his eyes to be filled with her beauty. He looked down at her and smiled at the height difference between them - she looked so tiny next to him. The vision of her standing in his arms, in the back porch of their house, her lips wet and slightly red for the kiss, was breathtaking. He contemplated her for a long moment, then buried his face in her hair and breathed in her scent. She smelled at tropical fruit, ocean, and sunshine. She _was_ his little sunshine. 

She took his head between her hands and smiled. " _Mi Amor_ , how was your trip?" 

"It was fine. I couldn't stop thinking about you, though." 

"You're the sweetest." She stood on her tiptoes and placed a kiss on his lips. "Are you hungry? I've made you some rice with vegetables..." 

She started heading inside, but he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back into his arms, her back pressed against his chest. 

"Actually ... I'd love to go straight to the dessert", he whispered as he started to deposit languid kisses along her neck. 

She grinned broadly. "I guess we can do that." 

***** 

That same afternoon, Raquel was knocking at the door of the director of the prison's office. 

"Prieto, I need to talk to you about what happened to Marquina", she said as soon as she entered the room. "I think I know who hit him." 

Prieto lifted his gaze from the documents he was reading and looked at her in disbelief. "Who do you have in mind?" 

"Pedro Velázquez, also known as El Diablo." 

"How are you so sure about it?" 

"I saw him talking to Marquina in the cafeteria the other day," she lied. "I'm quite sure he beat him after Marquina refused to do something for him, as an act of revenge." 

"Do you have any proof?" 

Raquel bit the inside of her cheek. "I don't. But you know better than I that he's been causing troubles since he set foot in here. We all know that he's the leader of the main criminal gang of the prison. Also, it wouldn't be the first time he acts this way." 

Prieto shook his head. "I'm not making a case against Velázquez only basing on your assumptions. We have no proof against him, and it's not like Marquina didn't deserve it anyway." 

"Look for proof, then!", she blurted out as Prieto's last affirmation echoed in her mind. She tried to repress the anger that was rising inside her body. "Watch the security videos, question the other prisoners... didn't they cover the hallway's cameras next to the library? There might be fingerprints on them. There's plenty of things you can do. What would the journalists say about the director of a state penitentiary refusing to investigate an attack on a prisoner? It would be described as a failure of the whole Spanish prison system, and I don't think your superiors would be happy about it. You could even get fired." 

Prieto thought about it for a moment, then leaned back on his chair. "Alright. I'll keep an eye on him and interrogate Marquina as soon as he wakes up. If it is all, you can leave." 

"It isn't, actually." He looked up at her. 

"I strongly believe that Marquina's team would try and help him escape from the hospital. I need your authorization to stay there and keep a closer eye on him." 

"There's a police officer in front of his room already." 

"I am the best person for this job, and you know that. I dealt with those people already, and I know their strategies better than anybody else."

"I guess that's true", he said eventually. "Fine. You will take turns with Ruiz." 

The days that followed, Raquel spent most of her time at the hospital. She used to sit on the chair next to Sergio's bed reading a book or watching a movie on the old hospital TV. The rest of the time, she talked to him. She talked about everything: her day, her daughter, her colleagues, and how much she couldn't stand Prieto, the mental condition of Marivì, the weather, the gossip she heard from the nurses... Talking seems to have a positive effect on people in a coma - at least that's what the medical magazine she had bought said. During the night shifts, she slept on the empty bed next to his since no other patient was allowed in the room for security reasons. She had stored some clothes and towels in the room's closet so she could easily shower, wear a comfy pajama for the night and get changed in the morning before anyone could notice. She wasn't supposed to do it, but she couldn't care less. She didn't even believe that the members of his team would try and rescue him - not while he was still in a coma - so, at the moment, the only thing she was concerned about was his health. And as she sat close to him, all curled up on her chair, minute after minute, hour after hour, she had started to realize something: she cared about him. She cared way more than what she had been willing to admit to herself in the past months. She cared about him desperately, and the mere thought of it was leaving her breathless. 

***** 

On Tuesday morning, Raquel entered the room with a radiant smile on her face. 

"Good morning, sleeping beauty!" She placed her cup of coffee on the bedside table, then walked to the window and pushed the curtains open so the sunlight could illuminate the room. 

"So, today is a great day! Do you want to know why?" 

She moved back to the bed and sat on the chair next to it. "I just talked to the doctors, and they might decide to wake you up! They just need to do a few exams to make sure your brain is fine, and you'll be awake tonight." 

She stretched her hand towards his and intertwined their fingers together. In a few hours, she would be able to talk to him again, to hear his voice again. Suddenty, she felt a knot in her stomach. What if he wasn't healed or didn't wake up? She shook her head. Scientifically speaking, there was no reason for him not to. He was kept in a coma by specific medications and could easily be taken out of it by suspending them. But what if, for any reason, he didn't wake up? She squeezed his hand between hers as she fought to keep the tears from running down her face. 

"Don't you dare to pull a prank on me. You are going to do those exams, your brain is going to be fine, and you will be awake tonight. No jokes, do you hear me? Don't you dare." 

She rested her head on the chair back, her eyes still on his face, until a knock at the door interrupted her train of thoughts - it was time for him to be taken to the CT Scan room. She took a deep breath. "You better be healed, Sergio, or I'll slap you until I wake you up myself." 

The day proceeded with him being moved from one room to another, rounded by doctors and nurses. Raquel followed them for the entire time, breathing in relief every time the doctor told her a certain exam turned out negative. By late afternoon, he wasn't on oxygen anymore and the part of his treatment that kept him asleep had been suspended. 

"It might take a few hours before he wakes up as his body needs some time to eliminate the drugs", the doctor explained to her once they were back in his room. "When he does, it is important that you call us immediately so we can check on his condition." 

Raquel nodded and thanked the doctor before taking her usual seat next to Sergio's bed. He was finally going to wake up. It was only a matter of a few hours. She bit her lower lip as a sudden feeling of nervousness mixed with excitement invaded her stomach. She had been so focused on the thought of him waking up that she didn't think of what would happen after. What would he think of her being there as he woke up? Would he think they were together? Were they? She leaned on the bed and rested her crossed arms on the mattress with her head laying on top of them. She didn't want to answer those questions right now - she was too tired - so she pushed those thoughts to a corner of her mind. _You'll think about it later_ , she told herself as she blinked lazily. _Stop worrying so much._ She closed her eyes and just waited. 

*****

Cold. The room was cold. It was weird, given that they lived in the Philippines. Sergio got up from the bed and put on a pair of pants and a sweater. He was still freezing. He moved to the door and, as soon as he opened it, he got hit by a cold wind coming from the living room. 

"Raquel?" 

There was no answer, so he walked down the hall. "Raquel, is everything okay?" 

Again, no answer. His heart started beating faster as he got closer to the living room. The house was getting colder and colder. When he arrived there, he found the front door wide open and could see the rain pouring down the dark sky outside. 

"Raquel!" He shouted and looked around in panic. 

He crossed the room and entered the kitchen, where the metal ladles hanging from the dish rack were clashing with one another, creating a loud clattering. She wasn't there. He entered his office, and a strong blast of wind blew the window open, his paperwork flying everywhere. He kept calling her as he walked through each room, but he didn't find her. The world around him started spinning fast, making him sick. The noise of the wind was only a muffled sound in his ears now. He fell on his knees, unable to react. She was gone. 

***** 

He blinked a couple of times, allowing his vision to adapt to the reddish light of the sunset coming from the large window. A sharp pain hit him deep inside his head as he tried to get up. He closed his eyes and waited for waves of pain to fade away. When it became bearable, he opened his eyes again. He scanned the room slowly, careful not to do any sudden movements, and despite his blurred vision - he realized he wasn't wearing his glasses - it was clear to him that he wasn't in prison anymore. He slightly turned his head to inspect the rest of the room, and his eyes widened in surprise as he saw her. Was it a dream? Did he die and was now in a kind of undeserved paradise? He stretched his hand and caressed the soft skin of her cheek. She was definitely real. 

"Raquel", he whispered. "Raquel, wake up." 

A sleepy moan escaped from her mouth as she reacted to his touch and leaned against his hand. 

"Raquel." 

His heart skipped a beat as her dark eyes fixed on his. She straightened up slowly, and he could hear her breath accelerating. She stared at him for a long moment, then smiled. 

"You're awake." 

"I am." He paused for a moment. "And you are here." 

Her smile broadened and tears started to run down her cheeks. She wiped them away with the sleeve of her shirt. 

"I am." 

He slightly opened his arms to her and she rushed to hug him tight. 

"Oh, god, I'm sorry." She lifted her weight from him as he moaned loudly in pain. "I forgot you have broken ribs." 

"It's okay", he tried to reassure her with a painful expression on his face. "It just ... it hurts everywhere." 

She nodded. "I'm calling the doctor." 

She got up and headed to the door, but stopped when she heard him calling her name. She turned around. 

"Raquel," He looked at her with a soft smile. "Thank you for being here." 

She smiled back and disappeared into the hallway. 

He rested his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. Despite the acute pain in his side and his head, he couldn't help but smile at the memory of her arms around him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo I'd like to set the next chapter in the hospital as well but I'd like to hear your opinion too. Let me know if it would be interesting to you or you feel the story would get sidetracked :)
> 
> As always, thank you for reading <3 And of course, Kudos and comments are highly appriciated!! :D


	5. Healing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I know most countries are having a hard time due to the Covid-19, so wherever you are I'm sending you all my love and good vibes, and I hope to cheer you up a little with this new chapter <3
> 
> Also, I'll try to make the best out of these weeks and keep updating (hopefully at a faster rate), but I'll give priority to the Italian version of this work since I didn't post the translation of chapters 4 and 5 yet. Hopefully, it won't take to long.
> 
> As always, I have to thank Corny_Cornflakes for her precious help and her patience in proofreading this chapter and discussing all my doubts with me. She plays a key part in this work!

The next day Raquel arrived at the hospital right after lunchtime, carrying a small gym bag. She had just relieved her colleague and was about to enter Sergio's room when a nurse came out of it. 

"He's refusing to eat", the nurse announced, holding in her hands a plastic tray with Sergio's lunch on it. 

Raquel frowned. "I thought he was fed through a feeding tube." 

"It was removed earlier today. The doctor decided to proceed with a gradual reintegration of regular food, starting from liquids and soft food." 

"Alright. I'll take care of it, thank you." 

Raquel slid the handles of the bag down her arm so she could grab the tray from the nurse's hands, and entered the room. 

"Not that stuff again!" Sergio complained as he saw her carefully placing the bowl of soup on the nightstand. "What are my chances to bribe you, so you throw it away?" 

She laughed. "Very low, I'm afraid." 

"Seriously, how much money?" 

"Oh, come on. It can't be worse than the food you have in prison." 

"It's not - that would be impossible, but I can't say it's good either." 

She rolled her eyes as she placed the bag on the chair and closed the door. Then, she went to sit on the edge of his bed. 

He looked at her, pleasantly surprised. His first instinct would have been to stretch his hand to grasp hers, but he didn't - he wasn't sure he was allowed to do it. Instead, he smiled at her with no idea of what to say and, eventually, the only word that came out of his mouth was: "Hi." 

"Hi." She smiled back. "How are you feeling today?" 

"Awful," he answered, and a light chuckle escaped his mouth so he wouldn't sound too dramatic, "but I'm happy to see you." 

Raquel bit her lower lip. As her brain processed those words, she could feel a hundred butterflies invading her stomach. 

They sat in silence for a moment, both of them awkwardly waiting for the other to say something. Unexpectedly, he was the one to speak first. 

"I dreamed of you during the last few days." 

She widened her eyes in surprise. "You did?" 

He nodded and continued, "There were times when I dreamed about us being in the Philippines together, in a house we bought over there. You know, being a normal couple that lived a normal life..." 

He stopped, taking the time to replay those images in his head. Then, his expression darkened a little. "Other times, you weren't there, and it looked more like a nightmare. I guess it depended on you being physically here or not, or on the fact that I couldn't hear your voice sometimes." 

"You heard me talking to you?" Suddenly, she felt her cheeks flushing as all the things she had said while he was asleep came back to her mind. 

"Not the whole time, but yes." 

"And what did you hear exactly?" 

He thought about it for a moment. "I remember Paula getting an 'Excellent' on her math test, and that nurse Dolores' husband, doctor Torres, cheated on her with a cardiothoracic surgeon. I'm also pretty sure I heard you curse at Prieto a couple of times." 

She let out a soft sigh and chuckled, heartened. She would have felt embarrassed beyond measure if he had heard her saying any overly sentimental thing. 

"...and you called me 'sleeping beauty' which is flattering, but I didn't expect you to be a Disney kind of person." 

She froze, her face turning bright red. She quickly covered it with her hands and laughed nervously. 

"God, I can't believe you heard me saying that!" 

He looked at her with a huge smile, his heart lightening at the view, and he could swear she was the most lovely person in the entire world. 

"Please, don't feel uncomfortable. It was rather sweet." He paused, then added, "Even though I was expecting you to follow the storyline and wake me up with a kiss." 

At those words, Raquel uncovered her face and stared at him, her eyebrows raised and a sudden smirk on her face. 

"You wanted a kiss?" 

He swallowed as he abruptly realized he had said something highly inappropriate. He pushed his glasses up on his nose. 

"No! Well, yes, but… I mean...it was a joke." 

"Sergio, it's okay." She smiled at him, and the words just came out of her mouth before her brain could put a filter on them. "We can pretend you are still asleep." 

When she realized what she had just said, it was too late. Her eyes were lingering on his lips. It was wrong, and she knew it - it was wrong from every point of view, but she was dying to do it. Not without effort, she averted her gaze from his lips and fixed it into his. 

"Close your eyes." 

"W-what?" 

"Sergio, close your eyes." 

He hesitated but did as she asked. After a few instants, he felt her mouth on his. Her touch was so gentle and innocent that he didn't even move, as if being too afraid to ruin that moment. When she withdrew from him, he opened his eyes and held his breath as he saw her face a few inches away. She was looking intently at him, her lips slightly parted. She was stunning. Their eyes met, and to his surprise, she burst out laughing. 

"God, it's the cheesiest thing I've ever done." 

He started laughing too. "As I said, I didn't know you are a Disney kind of person. Not that I mind, of course." 

Their laughs soon faded and turned into bright smiles as they looked at each other like they didn't care about anything else in the world. 

She leaned in and kissed him again, and this time, he responded. He wrapped his arms around her waist, while her hands stroked his hair and beard. She tilted her head to allow him better access and groaned at the feeling of his tongue exploring her mouth. As he did so, he pulled her closer, forcing her to support herself on her elbows so she wouldn't put too much weight on his already harmed ribs. They kissed for a long time, slowly and deeply, enjoying every second of pure bliss they could get from that contact. 

"Is this another dream?" he whispered when they parted to catch their breaths. 

She giggled and gave him a peck on the lips. "Did it look real enough?"

He pretended to think about it, so she gave him another one. "How about now?" 

"Almost." 

She filled the distance between them a third time and gave him a longer kiss, her hand tenderly stroking his cheek. He smiled against her lips and kissed her back. 

After a few minutes, she pulled back and straightened up, a sudden thought making its way in her mind. 

"Your soup must be cold by now." 

"Who cares about the soup?" He tried to pull her closer again, but she stopped him by gently placing a hand on his chest. 

"I'm serious, you need to eat." 

"Raquel, I really don't feel like eating." 

"But you can't heal if you starve", she insisted and grabbed the bowl from the nightstand. 

"Why don't we talk about what just happened, instead?" 

She took a deep breath. _Now what?_

"Sergio, I... " 

"Raquel," he interrupted her, "before you answer me, I want you to know that it is not my intention to pressure you. I know that this situation is unusual and difficult to handle, and I'm not asking you to make a hasty decision that you may regret as soon as you leave this room. I just don't know what that kiss meant and if there will be a chance, in the future, to repeat it, and..." 

"That I'm in love with you." 

His heart leaped and he interrupted his speech. 

"The kiss... it meant that I'm in love with you" she repeated. "And that I missed you, and that it took you to be covered in bumps and bruises for me to finally understand it. And I don't know what will happen in the future, but I don't want to keep waiting for a sign from the universe to come and tell me what to do." She took his hand between hers and entwined their fingers as she spoke, her watery eyes in his. "So, what I can offer you is to live this day by day, and see where it takes us." 

He stared at her for what seemed an endless amount of time, then nodded. 

"Alright", he said as he squeezed her hand, his eyes threatening to start crying any moment now. "To be honest, it's way more than I could hope for." 

She laughed softly, and as she blinked, a single tear ran down her cheek. She wiped it away with the back of her hand and breathed in deeply. 

"Alright, you really need to eat something now, or you won't live long enough to find out what the future holds." 

He gave up and had half of the soup, then she insisted on him trying the apple sauce. Afterward, she cleaned up the plates and pointed at the bag she had left on the chair earlier. 

"I've bought you something." 

She unzipped the bag and pulled out a toothbrush, a tube of mint toothpaste, a bottle of shower gel, and one of shampoo. 

"And here's an electric razor", she said placing the object on the nightstand, next to the rest. "I'll help you fix your beard one of these days." 

"Thanks, but you don't need to bother. If you find me a mirror, I can do it myself." 

"Nonsense." She waved it away with her hand. "You need to rest, and I don't mind at all." 

He frowned. "Raquel, have you ever shaved someone's beard?" 

"No, but I shave my legs every week, it can't be so different!" 

He was about to reply when she showed him a brand new man pajamas and some books. 

"You'll probably have to wear the hospital gown for a while, but I thought you could store this in the closet for when you will need it. And I thought you might like something to read. I didn't know what kind of books you like, so I've brought you some of mine. I can get you different ones if you don't like them." 

He looked at her and at the things she had bought him, startled. Did she really do that for him? 

"Raquel, this is perfect." He reached for her hand and caressed it tenderly. "Thank you." 

She smiled sweetly at him and leaned down to place a kiss on his lips. 

She helped him brush his teeth, then stacked the books on the nightstand and stored everything else in the closet. They talked for a while, then she insisted on him trying and take a nap while she sat on the chair next to him, her fingers entwined with his. 

***** 

"You need to shower." 

"I know, and I will. I'm just saying I don't need help." 

"Yes, you do." 

Raquel snorted, exasperated. They had been arguing about it from the very moment the nurse removed his catheter - _Raquel, please, I don't feel comfortable talking about catheters_ \- and she had offered to help him shower. 

"Sergio, seriously, it's not safe. You could get dizzy and fall, also your ribs are not completely healed, and it will be painful for you to move. If you don't want my help, then let a nurse assist you." 

He shuddered. "I'm not going to let a stranger see my naked body." 

"Then let _me_ do it!" 

She took a deep breath attempting to calm herself down. 

"Listen, I understand you don't like people invading your personal space, but you need to accept the reality as it is. You have been stuck to this bed for two weeks which means that your leg muscles haven't worked for a while, and yes, the doctor allowed you to get up now, but your body needs time to recover. You can't just get up and walk around, that's not how it works." 

She got closer to the bed and took his hand, her gaze softened. "Sergio, let me help you." 

He lowered his gaze on their entwined fingers and remained silent for a few moments, then nodded. "Fine." 

She smiled and leaned down to kiss his cheek. In response, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her gently on the bed with him, making her giggle. 

"I might need a bit of encouragement, though," he whispered next to her ear. 

She grinned and started tracing a trail of light kisses along his neck and jaw to end up on his mouth, which she kissed softly, a hand in his hair until he parted his lips and deepened the kiss, holding her close. She let him for a while, then slowed the kiss down and looked at him with a sly smile. "You'll have the rest after the shower." 

"That's unfair." 

"Deal with it." 

He grinned and gave her one last kiss before finally getting up from the bed. Raquel helped him in the process and walked with him the few feet that separated them from the bathroom. 

As they got close the door, he leaned against the wall, his head on the doorframe, tightening his eyes.

"Sergio! Are you okay?" 

"Yes," he whispered. "It's just some dizziness." 

She nodded. "You should take a bath today, so you would be able to sit." 

They reached the inside of the bathroom and Raquel opened the tap of the bathtub, making sure it was set at the right temperature. When it was full, she added some shower gel to the water and helped him get rid of the hospital gown. 

"So, how does it feel?" she asked once he was laying inside the tub. 

He exhaled loudly as he relaxed in the warm water. "Amazing." 

She poured a generous amount of shampoo on her hand, then bent down and started moving her hands through his hair, gently scratching his scalp. 

He stared at her in surprise. "Raquel, you don't have to." 

"Just relax and let me take care of you." 

When the water got cold, she helped him rinse the soap away and step out of the tub. He quickly grabbed a towel and dried himself up, reaching as many inches of skin as he could - it was embarrassing enough to stand in front of Raquel without any clothes on, he wasn't going to ask for her help drying the water away of his body. 

He had to give up, though, when he couldn't reach his back without howling in pain, so she grabbed the towel from his hands and rubbed it gently on him while tracing delicate kisses on his shoulder. As she did so, a shiver ran down his spine, and he closed his eyes in delight. That moment was better than anything he could ever imagine. 

He wore the pajamas she had brought for him the previous week, and she insisted on helping him buttoning the shirt. 

"Raquel, really, I can do it myself." 

"I don't mind." He noticed that she stretched her lips into a smile, but it didn't extend to her eyes. 

He reached for her hands, still on the shirt's buttons, and took them into his. 

"What's wrong?" 

She felt a knot in her stomach. How could he read her feelings so easily? 

At first, she didn't answer, and a sudden thought broke into his mind. He widened his eyes as he felt his heartbeat accelerate. 

"Did you change your mind about us?" 

"What?" she said, taken aback. "No, of course not. It's just that..." 

She paused, looking for the right words. 

"It's okay, you can tell me." 

"It's that, seeing you in this condition, full of aches and in pain... I can't help but feel responsible." 

He frowned. "What are you saying? It's not your fault at all." 

"I confiscated the drugs from you. I should have expected that there would be consequences." She lowered her eyes." I've put you in danger, and let you face it all by yourself." 

He shook his head and felt sharp shots of pain going through his brain, but tried to ignore it. "It's not your fault. Don't ever think that." 

"But if I didn't..." 

"Raquel, look at me." He placed one finger under her chin and pushed it up slightly, so her eyes were fixed on his. 

"You were just doing your job, and I could have come up with a better excuse than saying I lost the drugs. It's not your fault." As he spoke, he stroked her cheek with his thumb, in such a loving way that she felt like crying. She swallowed hard as her eyes filled with tears. 

"Also, if I didn't end up battered, I couldn't do this." He placed a light kiss on her forehead. "And this," he kissed her cheekbone, "and this," her nose, "and this," her closed eyelids. 

He went on dropping small kisses all over her face. Then, he gently wrapped her in his arms and held her close, his hand moving up and down her back, as she rested her head on his chest. 

"It isn't your fault, do not think that ever again", he whispered. "I would get myself beaten a hundred times more if it means that I can hold you like this." 

Listening to those words made it impossible for Raquel to keep the tears from running down her face and wet his shirt, but he didn't care. They stood there for a while, just holding each other, and Sergio swore to himself that he would die before giving up on her again. 

*****

It was the last evening Sergio spent at the hospital after almost three weeks, and he was feeling far better. His head was healed, and despite a few episodes of dizziness, he could walk to the bathroom without any help. His ribs, instead, were going to take ten more days to recover, so he had been told not to exert himself for a while. 

Over the past weeks, Prieto had sent some policemen to investigate on the aggression, but he didn't say El Diablo's name despite Raquel's insistence.

"You need to tell the truth, Sergio." 

"To what end? He would spend a few days in solitary confinement and then beat me up again, assuming his friends didn't yet." 

"I'll try and get him transferred to the high-security branch. I'll put pressure on Prieto." 

"Raquel, he's the main dealer of the prison. If he leaves, everybody will be against me." 

"But you can't let him get away with it!" 

"Trust me, he's not going to." 

"What do you mean?" she paused. "You have a plan, don't you?" 

He nodded. 

"How illegal is it?" 

"Quite illegal." 

She sighed. "Alright." 

"Don't you want me to tell you?" 

"No, I would probably try to stop you. Just be safe, please." 

So he had proceeded with his plan and was ready to put it into practice on his very first day back in prison. 

But that night, he didn't want to think about the plan. He looked at the clock on the wall and smiled instinctively: only fifteen more minutes until Raquel arrived and took over the night shift. He turned off the tv as the end credits of the news scrolled on the screen and sighed in relief. From the moment he had woken up from the coma, he had been watching the news multiple times a day on different channels, in case the police had caught any member of the team. Luckily, nothing had been said about them, which meant they were probably safe. 

A few minutes later, Raquel entered the room holding up a take out bag from a Chinese restaurant for him to see. 

"I've got dinner", she said cheerfully as she bent to kiss him on the lips. 

He frowned. "I thought I wasn't supposed to eat anything other than hospital food." 

"You are not, but I assumed you would enjoy a decent meal before returning to eat prison slop. I can take it back if you don't want it." 

"I was just saying", he hurried to reply and grabbed the take out box she was handing him. 

She smirked and sat cross-legged on the bed, opening her own box of noodles. 

When they were done eating, she cleaned up the empty containers and they got ready for the night. It was quite early, so Raquel suggested to watch a movie. He shifted towards one side of the bed giving her enough space to squeeze next to him and press her body onto his side - the right one, in order not to put her weight on his broken ribs. She rested her head in the hollow of his shoulder as he rounded her with his arm. 

"What kind of movies do you like?" she asked as he started zapping through the tv channels. She had just realized that she didn't know anything about that man, except that he was incredibly smart, and based on her memories of the two nights they had spent together the previous year, extremely good in bed. That thought made her blush slightly. 

"I don't watch movies, usually." 

"Why not?" 

"I just prefer books." 

"Oh..." she bit the inside of her cheek and added, "then we don't have to watch one if you don't want to." 

She was about to get up from the bed, but he tightened his arm around her. 

"No, it's fine. I said that I _usually_ don't watch movies. It means I can do it on special occasions." 

"Are you sure? I don't want you to feel obligated." 

He leaned in and placed a kiss on her lips. "Raquel, I would love to watch one with you." 

With a pleased smile on her face, she made herself comfortable again on his shoulder. 

They kept scrolling through the channels until Julia Roberts appeared on the screen, and she tapped on his arm. 

"Oh, I love this one!" 

"What is it about?" 

"It's called Pretty Woman, it's a romantic comedy." 

"I've never seen a romantic comedy before." 

"Then you should start with this one." 

With every minute they spent watching the movie, they were more wrapped up into each other. She anchored her leg over his and snuck a hand between the buttons of his shirt to gently stroke his chest from under the fabric, while he slowly ran his hand through her hair, over and over, making her relax against his body. 

At some point, she felt his gaze on her. 

"You're not watching", she teased him, her eyes glued to the tv. 

He chuckled. "I can't help it. You are so beautiful." 

She smiled broadly as he placed a kiss on her hair, and answered by hugging him closer. 

As the movie went on, she could feel his hand move from her hair down to her shoulder, then extremely slowly down her arm to end up on her side. He followed the line of her body down to her hip and then up again, tracing the same path backward, but this time under her shirt. His fingers wandered lazily on her back for several minutes before heading down again, and stop only an inch above the edge of her pajama pants. Not receiving any reaction from her, he slid his fingers under the rubber band, over the rim of her underwear, and stroked her thigh. When his hand shifted closer to her inner thigh, she let out a soft moan and pressed her hips against his side. 

"Sergio, what are you doing?" 

"What do you think I'm doing?" 

She bit her lip. "We can't have sex. Your ribs haven't recovered yet." 

"But I'm feeling fine..." 

He cupped her face with his other hand, then lowered his head to kiss her lips. 

"...and I want you so badly." 

He kissed her again, groaning as she parted her lips allowing him deeper access to her mouth. He stroked her thigh again, his touch faster and firmer than before, but when his hand circled her buttocks, she stopped him by placing her hand on his. 

"Sergio, we can't. Your breath will accelerate and your ribs will hurt." 

"I don't mind." 

" _I_ do mind. I don't want our first time making love after almost a year to be with you writhing in pain." 

She grabbed his hand and gently led it out of her pants and up to her lips, and placed a kiss on the back of it. 

"There's no need to hurry." 

He nodded, suddenly a gloomy look was drawn on his face. "I just... I'm going back to prison tomorrow. I don't even know if there will be another chance." 

"Of course there will be. I can't assure you that is going to be easy, but we will figure something out." She squeezed his hand and smiled at him, confident. 

He remained silent for a few moments, inhaling a couple of times as if he wanted to say something but couldn't find the right words. 

"What if you change your mind?" he eventually asked. 

She frowned. "What do you mean?" 

"What if the prison reminds you that I'm a criminal, and you change your mind about us." 

"Sergio, I'm aware of the fact that you are a criminal already, and of course I don't like it. But I promise you that I will do my best to accept it, even when you and your plans will give me a hard time." She looked into his eyes as she spoke, her hand tenderly stroking his cheek. Then, a grin appeared on her face, and she added, "Just try not to make it too difficult for the next two weeks because I'm planning on fucking you the very moment the doctor declares you healed." 

He laughed. "I'm counting on it." 

"I will, right on the doctor's desk!" she joked, making him laugh again. 

Then, she turned her attention back to the screen. "Now be quiet, this is the last scene." 

He rounded her with his arms and held her tight. She was so amazing that he couldn't believe his luck. He didn't deserve her and was well aware of it, but having her in his arms, so strong and beautiful, made him think that, maybe, his very purpose on this earth was to make her happy. 

"Raquel?" he whispered after they had turned off the tv and she was laying next to him, her eyes closed and her voice sleepy. 

"Hmh?" 

"I'm in love with you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos or/and comments are always extremely appreciated <3


	6. Back in business

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone :D I know I haven't updated in ages, I'm so so so sorry! But here I am with another chapter to let you all know that I didn't give up on this story. It might take a while - hopefully not too long :( - until I post the next chapter, but I promise I'll keep writing.  
> Also, I own a special 'thank you' to my amazing friend and favorite beta reader Corny_Cornflakes! Thank you for your precious help and for your patience :*  
> Meanwhile, I reopened my Twitter account with the same username as here - GiuliawiththeJ. I had it for years and never really tweeted anything, BUT I make it a point to use it more often. So feel free to reach me out if you'd like to!
> 
> READ ME  
> Chapter warnings: drugs and drug dealing are a central issue. Sergio will be involved and will make questionable choices. So kids don't do this at home, and if you don't want to read about this topic, I suggest you skip the whole second part, which means everything between the first and the second divider ( ***** ).

She rose on her tiptoes and pressed a long, affectionate kiss on his lips. "I wish we had more time."

"Me too." Sergio exhaled almost painfully and tightened his arms around her waist.

That was it. The time in the tiny dreamy bubble they had lived in over the past three weeks was about to expire, and four police units were ready to burst them out of it at any moment by coming in and taking him back to prison. Pushing that thought to a corner of his mind, he pressed his forehead against hers, trying to focus on those last precious moments together.

"I don't know if I can survive two whole days without seeing you."

"Oh, darling..." she brought a hand to his chest and caressed it fondly. "We spent almost a year without seeing each other. I'm sure you'll be fine for a couple of days."

He sighed. "To be honest, it was the worst year of my life."

She tilted her head to the side and smiled sweetly at him. It was hard to believe that the man standing in front of her, looking at her with brown doe eyes through his squared glasses, and the Professor, a bastard mastermind, were the same person. He seemed to have two different personalities - or better to say, it looked like two different people were, somehow, stuck in the same body, and each of them took advantage of the other's moments of weakness to emerge and predominate. She had to admit to herself that Salva - _Sergio!_ \- was her favorite. However, a sudden thought crossed her mind, and she frowned as a suspicious look formed on her face. "Wait, how do you know I'm not working tomorrow?"

She felt his hand moving away from her back and watched as he pushed his glasses up his nose, meaning that the question had made him uncomfortable, and tried to suppress a smile at how adorable that little tic of him was.

"You always have the day off after the night shift," his cheeks were turning reddish as he confessed. "I've been watching you a lot since I was arrested, and took mental notes of whenever I saw you and where. It took me less than a week to figure out your work schedule."

He expected her to step away and be upset about him intruding on her privacy, to express her disappointment, and maybe walk out of the room. But none of that happened. Instead, the sweet sound of her laughter sounded in his ears as she leaned her head back, her hair falling over her shoulders in a golden stream, offering him what he would define as the loveliest vision ever, and his heart lightened.

"Should I be worried?" she teased him. "You aren't any creepy stalker, are you?"

He chuckled. "I'm not."

His fingers were brushing the skin of her arm ever so lightly that she could barely feel his touch. He spent a few moments just doing that, again and again, with a serious, nearly solemn look on his face, as if caressing her was part of some sort of sacred ritual. Then, he finally let out the words that had been stuck in his head for days now.

"The fact is that every single minute I spend by your side, talking to you, holding you into my arms, caressing and kissing your skin, makes my day brighter. In prison, I couldn't do any of these things, but simply being in the same room as you, or even looking at you from far away, was enough to keep me going through the day. I wanted to know your schedule so I could stay close to you, because every time I crossed your path, it was a blessing." He breathed in, then out, taking some time to gather his thoughts, then continued. "I know I had no right to do what I did. It was disrespectful to you, and I should be ashamed of myself, but the thought of you was the only thing keeping me alive and giving me the strength to face all of this. And if you want to leave now, I would completely understand," the pitch of his voice rose slightly, "and I won't try to stop you. It's what I deserve for not respecting your privacy, and of course, you can take all the time you need to..."

Right when he was about to start rambling, she placed one finger on his lips, her eyes shining. He looked at her, confused.

"Sergio?"

"Yes?"

"Why don't you just skip the apologizes and kiss me?"

His face lit up. What did he do to deserve her? He smiled, grateful, and leaned down to catch her lips between his. They kissed for a few moments, then she hugged him tight and hid her face in the hook of his shoulder.

"I can't believe you still wanted to see me after I was so awful to you," she whispered.

He shrugged. "I couldn't help it. I will always want to see you, no matter what."

"You are the sweetest."

"So..." he shifted his body just enough to look at her in the eyes, "does it mean you aren't upset?"

She shook her head, giving him the loveliest smile. "How could I ever be upset about being loved so much?"

He took her into his arms and kissed her hair, burying his face in it and breathing her sweet scent in as he thought about the tremendous luck he had on finding her among seven billion people on Earth.

They spent several minutes like that, wrapped up into each other, relaxing against the reassuring warmth of each other's body and letting them express what words couldn't. Happiness for being together. Gratitude to the Universe for having reunited them. Hope of not messing it up again. Sorrow because they would say goodbye soon. Fear about what the future had in hold for them. Unconditional love for one another.

*****

The trip to the prison was short since Prieto had given the strict order to take the prisoner back to his cell in the shortest time possible to prevent any attempts of escaping. Not that Sergio ever had the intention of throwing himself out of the car's window and run for his life, anyway. During the time he stayed at the hospital, it wouldn't have been too difficult to bribe a nurse or a doctor to help him escape, but he had decided not to. There was no way he would let Raquel down again - especially now that they had reconnected - and she wasn't ready to run away with him yet. So the only thing he was concerned about while looking at the countryside through the window on the other side, was his team appearing and pointing a gun at his escort's heads. Sure enough, they knew about him being in jail by now, and he hoped they wouldn't try to rescue him - not only because they would risk their lives for him, but he would have to give them an explanation of why he preferred to return to that filthy prison instead of escaping.

Thankfully, nothing happened, and by mid-morning, Sergio was back in his cell, welcomed by Sofia and Marseille.

"Welcome back, Professor."

"Hi, Marseille." Sergio shook his mate's hand and gently patted Sofia on the head before lying down on his bed. He wasn't fully recovered yet, and his ribs were sore after the trip from the hospital.

The other man took a seat at the tiny table in the middle of the cell and gave him a long, curious look. "I have to admit it: I'm surprised to see you back. I thought you would escape."

Sergio shrugged. "The obvious choice isn't always the right one."

Marseille waited for him to elaborate that thought, but he didn't. Instead, he asked: "How are things doing over here?"

"Everybody knows what happened, and lots of the prisoners disagree with what El Diablo did," Marseille explained, "but they are too scared to tell. They are afraid of ending up the same way as you, or worse."

Sergio nodded. "That's exactly was I was hoping for."

"Professor, did those punches break your bones, _and_ made you lose your hearing?" Marseille asked, skeptical. "They are _not_ on your side!"

"But they aren't on his side either," Sergio replied calmly, and he sat up to better focus on his own words. "You see, these people are like sheep. Sheep travel in herds to protect themselves from predators because they know that a large flock is less appetible for a wolf to attack. Nonetheless, they know the wolf is still there, hiding in the forest and waiting for one of them to stay behind. So what do sheep need to feel safer?"

Marseille thought it over. "A guard dog?"

"Exactly!" Sergio snapped his fingers in excitement. "A guard dog protects the sheep from the wolf."

"These people's priority is to survive long enough to serve their sentences and leave," he added, seeing Marseille's confused look, "and El Diablo is giving them the protection they need to do so. He's their guard dog. If we want them to be on our side, we need to offer them a bigger dog."

"Professor, don't you think someone will notice if we let a dog in here?"

Sergio waved it away. "Forget the dog. It was a metaphor."

"But-"

"Protection," he explained, "that's what they need, and it doesn't matter to them who it comes from. Prisoners are like mercenaries: we only have to offer them a better deal."

The use of a military comparison seemed to help Marseille understanding Sergio's words, and he finally nodded.

"You could have said it sooner instead of playing the little farmer." He muttered. "So, how will you convince those people to change sides?"

"With El Diablo's same strategy: drugs."

Having Marseille's full attention, he started to outline his plan. "I've got a deal with a nurse whose cousin works at the prison as a janitor. He's willing to provide me with methadone, benzodiazepines, morphine, ketamine, oxycodone, and more, in change of a few thousand euros. We are going to sell this stuff at a low price - I don't care about the money - a price El Diablo will not be able to compete with, so he will lose his clients and, as a consequence, his power."

He went on to explain every detail of his plan. His eyes were shining as he talked, and you could almost hear the noise of the wheels in his brain spinning out of control. Marseille looked at him, fascinated: he already knew about the Professor's genius as he had followed the heist on the news with great interest and admiration, but to have him making up a plan in front of his very own eyes was a whole other story.

That afternoon, Sergio took care of the final details of the plan. First, he had to make arrangements with the nurse's cousin, Antonio, about the drug delivery. It had to happen in a safe, yet easy-to-reach location, which was why he excluded the kitchen and other rooms that had limited access, and the bathrooms - those were way too obvious. Instead, he decided the library was the perfect place.

"You hide everything in here," he told Antonio while showing him an old dictionary in which he had previously made a secret compartment by cutting the page, "and place the book back on the upper shelf. I'll leave you a note every Monday and Thursday with the orders, so make sure to check the inside."

  
Then, Marseille helped him make a list of potential clients. If he wanted this to work, he couldn't start selling drugs to the first guy he met: it had to be someone that would easily turn his back on El Diablo in change of a free dose.

By the next day, everything was ready. Early in the morning, he spotted his first client entering the bathroom area - it was the skinny blonde man he met on his first day at the prison. He gestured to Marseille to check the entrance, then entered the room. It wasn't crowded inside, and he noticed the man standing alone next to the large sink on the other side of the room. He couldn't hope for a better chance to approach him.

"Hi, Rafael."

The blonde man jumped at his sudden appearance.

Hearing no answer, Sergio casually pointed at the window and spoke again. "I'm sure Suárez will have fun coming up with the perfect excuse to punish a poor wretch and make him jog under the rain."

Again, no answer. Rafael probably thought that Sergio was going to beat him up because he took a few steps backward when he saw him rolling up his sleeves. Instead, he casually turned the faucet on, rubbed the soap bar between his hands, and started washing his face. The man hadn't said a word yet, but Sergio could feel his gaze on him - he had his attention.

He turned off the water and passed his wet hand between his hair before grabbing the clean towel on his shoulder to dry himself. Then, he turned to Rafael again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Sergio Marquina, also known as El Profesor."

"Don't worry," he added when the other man stayed still, looking suspiciously at his stretched out hand. "I just want to talk."

Rafael seemed to ponder those words for a moment, then shook his hand.

"I know who you are," he said, "the whole prison talks about you."

"Yeah, I guess my stay at the hospital made me quite famous."

"The heist too."

"Right."

"What do you want?" Rafael asked briefly, so Sergio decided to go straight to the point.

"I have something for you."

He took a nicely folded napkin from his pocket and handed it to him. Rafael slowly unfolded it and stared at the two pills in his hand. Then, he looked up at Sergio.

"How much do you want for these?"

"Those are for free," he replied. "And if you like them, I can make you a good price."

It didn't take too much effort to convince Rafael to accept that 'gift', and a few minutes later, Sergio was whistling on his way out of the bathroom. Throughout the day, he dispensed free pills to some more prisoners, and by the evening, he was quite satisfied with the result. He changed into his night uniform and laid in bed with a determined look on his face: it wouldn't be long until he could finally get his payback on El Diablo.

*****

When Sergio opened his eyes a few hours later, the prison was still dark and quiet. He looked at the small barred window high on the wall of the cell and could catch a glimpse of pink and orange, meaning it had to be around 6 am. Unable to fall asleep again, he turned to lay on his back, an arm bent under his head, and stared at the musty mattress of the bed on top of his, as his thoughts automatically shifted to Raquel. Ever since they kissed goodbye at the hospital two days before, there hadn't been a single moment when he didn't miss her. It seemed to him that time had turned back to the days right after the heist when he couldn't do anything other than moping around his new house in Palawan, and even though she had never been there, everything reminded him of her. _Look at you,_ Andrés used to say to him, _Mr. 'emotions aren't more a than chemical reaction' is struggling with love. I thought I wouldn't live long enough to see this moment come._ A rueful smile appeared on his face as those words floated in his mind. He always hated his bother's dark sense of humor. But Andrés was right about one thing: he didn't live long enough to see where that first, unexpected love would take him.

Images of daily life and scraps of conversations begun to flow into Sergio's memory, his heart heavy with nostalgia, until one particular talk came to his mind, one that he would gladly forget.

_"Since you have finally discovered women, you should come to the party tonight," Andrés had told him one night while getting ready to go out for the fourth time that week._

_"I haven't discovered women," he corrected him, prickly. "I met the woman of my life. It's different."_

_"Woah, that sounds a bit too much, don't you think?"_

_"It doesn't."_

_"You spent - what - three days with her?"_

_"Five. And you lost the right of judging me for my love life after your third divorce."_

_"In my defense, you didn't have a love life before my sixth one."_

_"Sergio, come on!" He went on as his brother had no intention of getting up from the couch. "There are thousands of Raquel out there. If you could just give yourself a chance..."_

_"No," Sergio interrupted him, "she's the only one, and she isn't here. So, please, do not insist."_

_"Alright." Andrés snorted. "Then stay here and spend another night drowning your sorrows in nerdy books and masturbation."_

_"I don't-"_

_"Yes, you do. Your room is right next to mine."_

_His older brother glanced at him meaningfully, then brought his right hand at his belt level and started to simulate the gesture while letting out soft groans. "Oh yes, Raquel... I love you so much... yeah, just like that, my love... you are so beautiful... ahh..."_

_"Andrés, you are disgusting!"_

A year after that moment, Sergio could still feel the blood flowing to his cheeks. It was true that he had touched himself a few times and imagined it was her, but using his imagination was the only way he could find some peace. Sometimes, he spent whole days imagining she was there: he thought of waking up next to her and kiss her good morning, of spoiling her with breakfasts in bed and romantic dinners on the beach, of spending rainy afternoons on the couch just holding her close and kissing her until they both lost their breaths. Of making love to her, giving her pleasure, and making her happy and satisfied, making her feel loved. It wasn't just sexual - it was much, much more.

The past two days, he had experienced that same feeling of loss and emptiness, even though he knew it was only a matter of a few hours before he would see her again as if he had developed some sort of addiction for her. His new 'business' had been a good distraction, but not enough to keep him from pining for her. He glanced at the window again, and this time the dusk colors had faded, leaving the place to a pale shade of blue. The morning call would be at any moment now. Indeed, it was just a matter of time before a long, loud bugle sound broke the silence, and the manly voice of a guard announced a new day at Santa Cruz Penitentiary.

As he entered the cafeteria for breakfast, Sergio's eyes automatically scanned the room in search of Raquel, and he found her a few tables away, giving her back to him as she was busy talking to her colleague. He grabbed a tray from the pile and got into the line, while Marseille's words sounded like a muffled hum in the background. He was blathering something about his new 'job' in the laundry room and how gross it was to wash other's people underwear, but Sergio couldn't pay much attention to him. He kept throwing side glances at Raquel, wishing for her to turn around and notice him, but she seemed unaware of his presence. When it was his turn in line, he poured himself a cup of coffee and grabbed something to eat - a bowl of lousy cereals and a mushy banana - then headed to the less crowded table, fighting the impulse to sit closer to where she was standing, instead. It was vital for the future of their relationship, and, most of all, for Raquel's safety that nobody suspected them. The fact of being close with a convict could have brought her some deep trouble: she could have lost her job, the custody of her daughter, or even being charged as his accomplice and go to prison herself. He couldn't allow his feelings to put her in danger.

"Professor, are you listening?!"

Marseille's voice shook him from his thoughts, and when he raised his eyes from his bowl to look at the man in front of him, he realized Raquel had turned around and was now looking in his direction as she had probably heard his name.

"Yes," he casually replied, his eyes fixed on her over Marseille's head, "laundry, underwear, gross - I'm listening."

As much as the little voice in his head kept telling him that eye contact wasn't really what discretion was about, he wasn't able to tear his gaze away from her, and, apparently, neither was she. They kept staring at one another, oblivious of anybody else in the room and knowing each other well enough to know they were both fighting the urge to crush their mouths together. When she unconsciously bit her lower lip, his pupils dilated. He would have given anything to be the one biting that lip. And licking it, and sucking it, and kissing it, and...

But once again, his fellow inmate interrupted his train of thought.

"Seriously, what the hell is so interesting back there?" he asked.

Sergio hurried his attention back to his cereals and muttered something that sounded like a 'nothing, really.' But that didn't stop Marseille from turning around and seeing what - who - he had been staring at the whole time.

"Oh, I see." The man nodded and grinned approvingly. "She's hot."

_She is._

Instead, Sergio shrugged. "She's okay."

"Too bad she's a cop, eh Professor?" Marseille pointed out. "Although she must not be that good, otherwise she wouldn't have been downgraded."

"She's brilliant." Sergio blurted out, raising his thumb and index for the man to see. "She was this much from arresting me."

At that point, accomplishing his previous resolution of not drawing attention to them was impossible. Raquel was amazing, and nobody could say the opposite.

"I don't know why she is here, but I'm quite sure it was her choice. I talked to her as the Professor during the heist, and I assure you that she's competent and has remarkable negotiation skills. She has an excellent insight..."

"Professor-"

"...she's incredibly smart, capable, enthusiastic about her job..."

"Professor, she-"

"...but also compassionate, and empathic, and-"

"And here."

Sergio's head snapped up, and he saw her a few feet away from them, taking firm steps in their direction, her mouth set in a hard line.

"You have no decency, eh Marquina?!" she addressed him in a taut voice once she was closer.

His eyes went round with surprise. What did he do?

"Do you think I'm stupid? You were just clearly staring at my ass!"

_What?_

Sergio's confused look disappeared the moment he saw her winking at him almost imperceptibly. Meanwhile, that scene had drawn the attention of a few other inmates to them who were now curiously looking at them, so when she placed her hands on her hips and went on accusing him, he just leaned back in his chair and let their little show begin.

"Well, Inspectora, can you blame me? You do have a fabulous ass."

Her mouth dropped open. "Who do you think you are to talk to me like that?"

"And I'll tell you more," he said with a grin, "those pants don't give you justice. It's a shame that you have to hide such a sight."

"Enough!" she yelled, and more people turned to stare at them. "To Prieto's office, right now!"

A sassy smile spread on his face as he got up and walked to the door, and she followed him.

They headed to the director's office without exchanging another word, Sergio in front and Raquel right behind him. Halfway there, though, she tapped him on the shoulder and nodded her head to a narrow corridor to the left. The passage was less crowded than the previous one - they barely crossed a few people coming from the other way - so before he knew it, his body was pressed against the cement wall, her mouth looking for his.

"Oh god, I've been dying to kiss you", she murmured on his lips before pressing hers against his again.

"I couldn't think about anything else either," he admitted, kissing her back enthusiastically, and he could feel a smile form on her lips.

"You couldn't?" she asked in such an innocent way that he couldn't help but smile back, and he lightly shook his head, his heart about to explode with the love for her.

They parted just an inch and watched how their smiles slowly turned into big, joyful grins. The kind of grin you can see on a kid's and his best friend's faces after yet another mischief: full of excitement and complicity.

"Raquel, I'm impressed," he confessed. "You are such a great actress. If you hadn't winked at me, I would have believed you were upset for real!"

She laughed. "I've got a few talents."

"You surely do."

A moment later, she could tell the look in his eyes had changed, and she could see the Professor emerging. She got confirmation of that when his hands reached her waist and grabbed her firmly, drawing her body further against his. "In fact, I can't wait to find out all of your talents."

Her brows arched, and she gave him a questioning, yet playful look. Was he really flirting with her? Incredibly, he was, and without any sign of hesitation or insecurity. He was staring straight at her with longing, darkened eyes, looking like someone who knew exactly what he wanted, and that was enough to ignite a little fire in her lower belly. His Professor's side wasn't a bad thing, after all.

She moistened her lips, observing how his gaze followed her every movement, and flirted back. "You would be surprised."

It was his time to raise his brows at her, and a low, harsh laugh escaped his throat. Then, his gaze flicked back to her mouth, and he brought his thumb to caress it.

"And you know what I've been dying to do?" he asked, referencing to her previous affirmation.

She shook her head, and he leaned forward to slowly take her lower lip between his and sucked it gently. Encouraged by the soft moan coming from her mouth, he did it again, a little harder. The third time, he gently sank his teeth into her skin and licked the sharp feeling away right afterward. He alternated these actions, over and over, creating a mix of sensations that made her moan deliciously against his mouth. Suck. Bite. Lick. Kiss. Repeat. That was all he could think about.

He enlaced his fingers in her hair and pulled her closer in a gentle, firm movement, to which she responded by opening her mouth, interrupting that carousel he was conducting on her lips, wanting to be an active part of it. She kissed him deeply, eagerly, and heartfully.

The taste of her was so intoxicating that he wondered how he survived all those years without her, as it seemed absurd right now. His whole life before meeting her seemed to be a waste of time - all of his reading, studying, planning, it was all vain. She was the only thing that truly mattered. So when, after several minutes of passionate kissing, she tried to part from him to catch her breath, he didn't let her. It wasn't enough - not enough of her lips, her scent, her softness, and he didn't know if it would ever be. She gasped as he rolled her over and inverted their positions, trapping her against the wall with his body and kissing her for another while. When she couldn't take it anymore, she firmly pushed on his shoulder, and he finally freed her mouth just to move south to her throat. Raquel leaned her head back, panting, but the feeling of him kissing the delicate skin of her neck made it impossible for her to catch the right amount of oxygen that she needed. On the other hand, her desire for him was growing every second. She groaned and tilted her head to the side to allow him better access to the most sensitive spot of her neck, and when he reached it with his wet, warm tongue, her whole body shivered. The tingle between her legs was becoming unbearable.

"Sergio, I need you", she whispered to his ear.

He raised his head to look at her, his eyes reflecting her same yearning.

"Where can we-"

"The conjugal visit room", she replied quickly.

He nodded and dried the wetness on his lips before taking a step back, ready to follow her all the way to hell if that would grant him a night - or morning, in this case - with her.

They sneaked through another series of corridors and rooms, acting their best to keep a low profile until they reached a door with the sign 'conjugal visits' on it.

" _Joder_!" Raquel exclaimed as she read a piece of paper taped on the wall next to the door and checked her swatch. "Muñoz is going to have a visit in fifteen minutes."

Sergio cursed as well, and a doubtful expression appeared on his face.

"I've missed you a lot, but I don't think I can be that fast."

"No. I haven't waited a year to have a ten minutes hook up."

Yet, she couldn't ignore that desire of feeling him close. So she took a moment to think it over, then her face lit up. "Come with me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll do my best to update soon, and I promise Sergio will have better behavior in the future :/  
> With the next chapter, I'll be publishing smut for the first time. I'm not sure how is going to turn out, but the rating might turn into explicit, depending on how inspired I am lol   
> Thanks for reading. Kudos and/or comments are always appreciated <3


	7. Loving you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm quite scared of posting this chapter since I had never wrote smut before, but it had to happen sooner or later! I hope you enjoy it :)  
> A big thank you to my dear friend Corny_Cornflakes for proofreading this. I don't know what I'd do without you! <3

As they walked, Sergio kept turning his head around, scanning the space around them in search of a reference point that would give him even the littlest clue of where they were heading to, but he couldn't find any. They had passed the library and the classrooms - it was part of the prison's rehabilitation program in which inmates learned different subjects and skills, so they could reintegrate into society after serving their sentences. Then, they had turned left after the wood workshop, walked for a while and took another turn, then a third and a fourth one, into a labyrinth of corridors that he couldn't recognize. The walls were painted in a light grey color, scraped off here and there like everywhere else in the building, but all the doors were closed and labeled with names of activities Sergio didn't even know were options of the prison education. It didn't take him too long to realize he had never been in that part of the building before.

"Raquel, where are we going?" he asked. 

She glanced sideways at him and smirked. "You'll see." 

A wide grin spread across his face, and he hoped it wouldn't take too long until they reached wherever she was taking him, his body quivering with anticipation. Of course, he had to set aside the idea of spending their second 'first' time together at a Philippinian beach, on a bed surrounded by lightened candles, with a warm breeze brushing their naked skins and nobody within several miles to disturb them. He had to admit to himself that reality was way different from what he had spent months fantasizing about, as there was no room for romance at the prison. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if they ended up making love in a broom closet. But the truth was, he didn't care. She was there, risking everything to be with him - she wanted him as much as he wanted her, and that made him the happiest man on earth. 

Eventually, Raquel stopped in front of a large double door and started sorting through the bunch of keys she kept on the metal ring on her belt, with Sergio's curious eyes switching between her and the door. When she finally found the right key, she inserted it in the keyhole and turned it. A loud _clunk_ indicated that the door was unlocked, so she took his hand, and they sneaked inside. 

A treadmill - that's what Sergio saw as soon as he stepped into the dimly lighted room. He blinked a couple of times, allowing his vision to adapt to the shadows, until his eyes were able to catch a clear sight of the rest of the room, which was softly illuminated by the pale sun rays coming through the small skylights. Well, he definitely didn't expect _that_.

Once again, the clanging of keys turning in the door lock behind him filled the silence, but this time it echoed off the tall walls of what looked a lot like – 

"A gym?" he asked, incredulous, staring at the training machines, dumbbells, and punching balls in front of him. He turned to her with a questioning look. "I didn't even know there was a gym in here." 

"It's used during winter only, when it's too cold for the prisoners to do their workouts in the yard," she explained. "This whole area we had just walked through was designed to provide an indoor alternative to the summer activities, which is why nobody is around at this time of the year." 

Sergio nodded, quite satisfied with her explanation, although the frown on his face didn't disappear yet. "But why here of all the places you could take me? Why not an empty classroom?" 

The answer to his question arrived right away, as he followed Raquel's suggestive gaze to the large landing mattress on the other side of the room, and a smirk spread across his face. "Oh, I see." 

With the same mischievous expression on her face, she took a few steps forward to close her hands behind his neck and fix her brown eyes on his. 

"And do you know what's the best part of a room that is supposed to be empty and locked?" 

He could think of at least a dozen reasons why a room with those two prerogatives would turn out useful, especially in a zero-privacy, criminal environment like a prison, but decided it wasn't the right time to list them to her. Instead, he placed his firm hands on her hips, gently rubbing his thumb on the heavy fabric of her uniform pants and arching his brows, waiting for her to continue.   
Not receiving any answer from him, she reduced the distance between them until her lips brushed against his, his warm breath tickling her skin, and she could see his longing for her growing and growing in his eyes as she whispered, "No cameras." 

The vibration of her words against his mouth sent little sparks to his core, and the urge to feel her closer guided his next move. He caught her smooth lips with his, letting go of every restrain he had had until then, knowing that no one could interrupt them now. Finally, it was just the two of them, and he was determined to make every single minute count. 

She didn't hesitate to grant him full access to her mouth when his tongue asked for it, allowing him to kiss her thoroughly, to explore every corner of her mouth and appreciate her sweet yet slightly coffee-flavored taste. A moan left her lips at the feeling of his hand sliding down the curve of her buttock and stroking the solid muscle of her thigh, the tip of his fingers dangerously close to her center, fueling the little fire between her legs. She pressed herself further against him, her body yearning for his touch, and let out another moan when he cupped her gluteus with his open palm from above the tight pants. _Stupid pants. Why were they even invented in the first place?_

Raquel's hands quickly moved down to her belt and managed to unbuckle it, so she could reach the incriminated piece of clothing and undo the first and only button. But before she could proceed to the zipper, his strong fingers wrapped around her wrists, stopping her from doing what she most desired to do at the moment, and she would have snorted with annoyance if it wasn't for the soft look he was giving her. 

"Not yet," he said, so close that their eyelids almost touched. "I want to take the time to memorize every second of it." 

He guided her hands back to their place behind his neck, watching how his words had canceled every trace of impatience from her face, leaving the room for the most loving, spontaneous smile. His expression immediately reflected hers, and he leaned in to plant a soft kiss on her moistened lips. _I love you_. Those three short words kept floating into his mind every time he looked at her, but they seemed so cliché that he wouldn't dare to say them out loud. He could have repeated them a thousand times, yet it would have not been enough to express what he felt for her. So he kissed her one more time, and then once more, and again, hoping that his lips would say what his voice couldn't. 

Little did he know that while he got lost in that thought, a warm, powerful feeling was spreading through Raquel's stomach and to the rest of her body, a feeling she didn't think she would experience again - not after years of being in an abusive marriage, nor after all the tears she had cried over the thought of him as the handsome stranger who stole her heart and betrayed her trust. Despite this, she could clearly recognize it. It was love, in its purest form. So when she kissed him back, it was like she was responding to his silent avowal. _I know. I love you too._

They kept kissing for a long while, mildly and lazily at times, just connecting, deep and lusty at other times, their hands roaming tirelessly over each other's bodies. But for how much he wanted to take it slowly, he couldn't prevent his body from reacting to her touch, and it was just a matter of time before the blood in his veins started flowing south, making his member harden against her belly. This time, he didn't object when she brought her hands to the zipper of her pants and pulled it down. She kicked off her shoes and slid out of her pants, and the sound of their mouths crashing together was muffled by the sound of her gun holster hitting the floor. The sight of her perfect legs made the bulge in his pants more painful, but he wanted to see more. He helped her out of her shirt, letting it pile up on the floor with the rest of her clothes, then took a step back to admire her half-naked body in its entirety. 

"You are even more beautiful then I remembered," he admitted, his dark eyes lost in every inch of her. 

Raquel smiled, pleased by that comment, although her cheeks had turned to a light shade of pink at the feeling of his piercing gaze on her body.

"Are you saying you have thought of me in _that_ way, Mr. Marquina?" 

He grinned. "More than I'm willing to admit." 

She arched her brows at him in the paltry attempt to look shocked by his confession, only to be betrayed by the large smile stretching over her lips. With her playful eyes fixed on his, she sneaked her hands under his shirt and ran her fingers on his torso, her nails gently scratching his skin as she got on her tiptoes to fill the height gap between them. 

"Good," she whispered to his ear, "because I had thoughts about you too." 

He exhaled loudly, and she didn't have to step back and look at his face to know how her words had affected him. Instead, her mouth started tracing its way down his neck, kissing and licking his warm skin until it reached the edge of his uniform. Feeling the need to rebalance the layers of clothes each of them were still wearing, Raquel grasped the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head, allowing herself a full sight of his toned pecs. She resumed kissing his body from where she had left earlier and further down to the soft hair of his chest, then headed up the line of his muscles and back to his throat. As her mouth left a wet path across his bare chest, her fingers danced on his ribs and stomach, descending his abs and playing with the hem of his orange pants, inevitably brushing his erection in the process before heading up again and leaving him hanging in frustration. However, the moment he let out a deep sigh after she drew away from his groin once more, she decided that he deserved some relief. She let her hand find its way into his pants and underwear, and the sound of Sergio gasping when her fingers wrapped around him filled her ears. "Raquel, oh my-"

His hand anchored to the small of her neck and made her finally look at him and see how his eyes were shining with desire. He applied a small pressure with his palm and pulled her closer, until their lips touched again, and kissed her like he didn't need anything else in the world other than keeping her close. 

She started stroking him at a slow, steady pace, her thumb circling his swollen tip every time her hand moved upward, making Sergio's groans more frequent and louder with each stroke. As she improved the speed of her movements, her mouth wandered along his jawbone, spreading kisses on his prickly beard until she reached the soft spot behind his ear. She pressed a kiss there as well, then shifted her head just an inch to take his earlobe between her teeth and pull it carefully. A hoarse sound left Sergio's throat, his length pulsing against Raquel's palm, and he quickly reached for her hand and took it out of his underwear before he would cum in his pants like an inexperienced teenager. He took a moment to catch his breath, his eyes shut, desperately trying to realign his thoughts in order not to take her right there and then. When he opened his eyes, he found her staring at him with a wide grin spread across her face. 

"It looks like someone's stamina isn't that good today", she teased him, only to regret it when she saw him averting his gaze and blushing. _Damn it._

He pushed his glasses up his nose. "I'm sorry," he said. "I've missed you so much, and this really seems like a dream to me-" 

"No, I should be the one apologizing," she quickly interrupted him. "I didn't mean to make fun of you, and I'm sorry you took it that way." 

Her words were sincere - he could tell it from the way she was looking at him. "Will you ever forgive me?" 

She knew the answer to her question as soon as he gave her that soft, Salva-kind-of look, but when he leaned in and pressed a sweet kiss to her lips, her heart melted once and for all. 

"Of course I forgive you, _mi amor._ " 

She let him take her into his arms, enjoying the feeling of the naked skin of his torso against hers, only the fabric of her thin bra separating them. 

"It seems like a dream to me too", she confessed with a smile, only a few inches away from his lips. 

Once again, he filled the distance between them and kissed her. "Then, I want you to enjoy it just as much as I do", he whispered. 

He ran his fingers down her spine until his hand found the hook of her bra and opened it with an easy movement of his thumb and index finger, then let the straps fall off her shoulders and onto the floor, finally freeing her chest from its prison. His eyes went dark as he passed his gaze over her perky, perfect breasts, her rosy peaks brushing almost imperceptibly against his chest and waiting to be touched, kissed, licked... Oh, how could he resist the sight of such beauty? 

He firmly gripped her butt and lifted her up, so he could bury his face in her bare bosom. 

"Your ribs... " she protested, too weakly for him to take it into serious consideration. 

"I'm alright," he mumbled against her skin before taking her right breast into his mouth, enjoying the feeling of her fingers enlaced to his hair and pulling him closer, a series of soft moans leaving her lips. 

She wrapped her legs around his hips as he crossed the room, directing them to the big mattress laying on the ground, feeling the wetness from her already dripping panties on his stomach. 

Sergio laid her on the mattress, her body lightly sinking into the foam rubber. He lowered his head to look in delight at the stickiness she had left on him. 

"My god, Raquel, you're so wet."

She grinned. 

"You know, you haven't been the only one missing all of this." She emphasized the last words as she gestured between the two of them, but then her eyes grew wide when he swiped his finger on his abdomen and put it into his mouth, licking off her juices. She felt a sudden heat spreading through her entire body. 

"You taste so delicious", he cooed, licking away her flavor from his lips before launching to lay on top of her, his eyes glistening with lust. 

He kissed her once again, and she thanked heaven that she was already laying down as the hint of herself on his tongue was making her dizzy. However, his kisses didn't stop on her mouth - he traced a trail down her body, giving some special attention to her hardened nipples before finding his way to her stomach, getting closer and closer to her sensitive core. When he reached the area below her belly button, she held her breath, her mind already lost in what he was about to do - something she had imagined him doing an embarrassing amount of times in the past year, during her alone time in the bathroom after her family went to bed. So she silently cursed when he circled around her center and placed his mouth on her hip instead. 

He gently pushed her legs open and spent several minutes there, leaving languid, open-mouthed kisses on the delicate skin of her inner thigh, his hands firmly stroking her up and down her limbs, pretending not to know where she wanted his mouth the most. _That bastard_. 

Shivers of anticipated pleasure ran through her body every time his warm mouth perched on her, and she twitched at the feeling of his tongue drawing wet paths on her skin. If he didn't hurry, she feared her body would just burn away. 

He ran his tongue on the fold of her groin, right at the edge of her wet panties, and she let out a frustrated sigh. "Sergio, _please_." 

She couldn't see him, but she was sure he was grinning. 

"I'm just setting the mood", he replied, lifting his body just a little so he could press another kiss on her pubic bone. 

"I _am_ in the mood already." 

This time he raised his head to look at her, and she could clearly see the grin on his face. She was about to complain again, but her breath hitched when she saw him finally hook his fingers to the hem of her underwear and pull it down. He threw the piece of cloth aside as she fell back on the mattress, licking her lips with anticipation, and then he positioned himself between her legs once more. 

The first wide stroke on her sex felt like someone had just removed the ground from under her feet, and she was precipitating. Her legs suddenly felt like butter, and her lips opened to let a loud moan escape that echoed off the walls of the empty gym. Her hips automatically shifted toward his mouth, desperately asking for more, and of course, he was happy to accomplish with her desire. He ran his tongue on her flesh in slow, intentive movements, wanting to discover every inch of her, every line and every fold, as he drank in the sweet nectar that his touch caused her body to produce. Raquel relaxed against the mattress as she enjoyed the delightful sensation of it, the feeling amplificated by the fact that she had closed her eyes, preventing any distraction. She was floating in the darkness, and the only thing she could feel was his tongue stroking her - soft moans filling the air every time he moved close to her most sensitive spot. A gasp left her throat as his lips closed over her bundle of nerves and sucked gently, and she instinctively buried her fingers in his hair, holding onto his black curls to make sure he remained where she wanted him the most. He started drawing lazy circles around her clit, adjusting the speed and the pressure as he went on, his mouth growing hungrier at every sign of pleasure she was giving him - a moan, an alteration of her breathing, her fingers pulling his hair, her groin pressing further against him, her body squirming beneath his touch, her thighs tightening around his neck and making it hard for him to breathe. She didn't know what he was doing or how he was doing it - the only thing she knew was that no other man had been able to bring her this close to an orgasm in such a short time before. He seemed to know exactly what she needed, how she liked to be touched and where, as if his mind had registered these pieces of information the last time they had sex, almost a year before, and now they were graven into his brain. But that didn't seem possible - they only spent two nights together. Yet, how could he be so - _oh_ \- so good? 

"Oh, yes, right there," she exhaled when the tip of his tongue brushed against a particularly sensitive spot, and her body shivered. 

She felt him circling her bundle of nerves again, and she threw her head back as he reached that exact spot again. He did it one more time, making sure to stimulate her right where she liked it, then brought his hand to open her folds and better expose those few millimeters of pure pleasure. He lowered his mouth on her again, but this time, he focused on that one spot only. 

Raquel couldn't help but moan loudly as a wave of pleasure begun to build inside her at a speed she had never experienced before, her fingers desperately trying to grasp the slippery rubber of the gym mattress. A part of her wanted to push him away, afraid that her body couldn't handle such direct stimulation, but she didn't have the strength to do so. It felt so incredibly good. And just when she thought it couldn't be any better, he inserted one finger inside her, soon followed by another one, and repeatedly pushed upwards right against a spot under her pubic bone. She arched her back, panting and twitching beneath his touch, her whole body threatening to tear apart, and he had to press his hand on her lower belly to make her stay still - now there was no way for her to escape the overwhelming sensation between her legs. In a few seconds, her muscles tensed, and his name echoed off the walls in the room as she released the tension he had carefully built up, wave after wave of pure bliss. 

He accompanied her in the aftershock, stroking her until her body stopped shivering, and her hand pushed firmly against his head. Sergio looked up at her and smiled at how beautiful she looked. She gave him a tired yet satisfied smile and, not without effort, opened her arms to him. "Come here." 

He went to lay on top of her, careful not to put too much weight on her chest since she was still trying to normalize her breathing. However, she didn't care and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him further down to plant a kiss on his still wet lips. "Thank you." 

Sergio let out a soft laugh. "Are you really thanking me for giving you an orgasm?" 

"Not just an orgasm," she replied, chuckling as she realized how silly her words must sound, "an epic orgasm. Sex hasn't been this good in so long, except for the two nights we spent together." 

A proud smile appeared on Sergio's face, and he rose his brow to give her a suggestive look. "And we are not even done." 

She smirked, her front teeth buried into her lower lip, as she had suddenly become aware of his hardened length against her hip, and the familiar tingle between her legs started forming again. She wanted more of him. 

Raquel pushed him down again, crushing their mouths together as she spread her legs to allow him to settle between them, her nails running up and down his bare back and sending shivers through his body. She gasped when the bulge in his pants brushed right against her groin, and she wrapped her legs around him to draw him closer, the friction between their bodies driving her insane. 

"Take off your pants", she whispered when she couldn't take it anymore. 

He quickly got rid of every remaining layer of clothes, offering her a full sight of his toned body. Her eyes wandered on his muscles as she followed every single move he made, until they stopped on his finally freed, swollen erection, and she licked her lips at the very sight of it. He was about to get back to her but she stopped him. 

"Wait," She crawled toward the edge of the mattress and kneeled right in front of him, "should we make sure you are ready?" 

Sergio frowned. "Raquel, I'm quite sure I'm-" 

_Oh._

Before he could finish his sentence, she ran the tip of her tongue on his length, flicking it over his throbbing head, and he understood. 

"Actually," he said, the anticipation revealing in his voice, "we really should check that." 

She grinned, and he watched how her mouth closed over him, her leering eyes fixed on his, making that gesture more arousing than he had ever thought. 

At first, she just teased him with slow movements of her tongue around the tip and down his shaft, licking her way back up to where he was more sensitive and sucking it gently as her hands stroked him smoothly. 

"Oh, that feels good", he groaned when she flicked her tongue over his frenulum. 

She mentally noted that information for the future, and then she did it again, investing some time into rubbing that area and the one around the head of his dick, trying to memorize his most sensitive spots the way he did with her. As she felt him getting harder, she ran her flat tongue from the very base to the top and took him into her mouth, then started moving at a steady rhythm, using both her warm lips and hands to give him pleasure, making him sigh and growl her name. 

For as much as his body wanted to release the tension accumulated in his lower belly, it took Sergio all of his self-control not to make that happen. He didn't want it to be over yet. He wanted to hold her close, make her scream his name for all the time he couldn't in the past months, and thrust into her until she was thoroughly satisfied. 

"Raquel," he said, reaching for her face so she would look at him. "I want you so badly." 

She pulled away, and he immediately missed the warmth and the softness of her mouth, but the vision of his member glistering with her saliva was enough to send shivers down his spine. With one last kiss, Raquel leaned back, waiting for him to join her on the mattress. 

As he did so, though, she couldn't help but notice his hand rubbing on his injured ribs. 

"Does it hurt?" she asked, her voice full of concern. He shook his head. 

"Really, it's just a little sore", he answered when she raised her brows at him. 

"Are you sure?"

"Would I ever lie to you?" he tried to reassure her, only to realize a second later that he _did_ lie to her. Multiple times. And she knew that. "Alright, maybe not the best choice of words." 

Raquel chuckled, all of her attempts to remain serious failing because of his clumsiness. "Maybe not." 

He spent a few seconds just observing her reactions, wondering if, deep down at the bottom of her heart, she was still mad at him for all the times he didn't tell the truth. They had never spoken about it, and the answer to that question terrified him, so he was glad when the feeling of her lips on his interrupted his train of thoughts. 

"Why don't you lay down and relax, and let me do all the work?" she suggested, and he gave in, well aware of the fact that he wouldn't be able to change her mind. 

"Alright, but I want to hold you."

She smiled. "We can do that." 

He laid on his back, and she sat astride him, sighing at the direct contact of their naked bodies, his hard shaft pulsing against her sex. She reached down for him and shifted her hips just enough for his tip to rub her wet entrance before she lowered herself on him with a low cry. For a few moments, the room was filled with dead silence as neither of them was daring to even breathe, too overwhelmed by the feeling of completeness given by the union of their bodies. Their gazes locked on each other, and they smiled, seeing their own emotions reflected into the other's eyes. It was perfect. Just perfect. She leaned down to catch his lips in a passionate kiss as she started moving, his arms wrapped around her and holding her close to him. They rocked together for as long as their body allowed them to before they began to ask for more, taking the time to savor every thrust and rejoice of every inch of closeness earned. Long hums of pleasure escaped her lips each time he filled her completely, to which he responded with low sighs from somewhere between her hair and the crook of her shoulder, and he was extremely aware of her soft walls opening for him and tightening all around his length. That position didn't provide a deep stimulation nor enough freedom of movement, but it gave them closeness and connection, and that was all they needed at the moment.

They spent several minutes like that, making love in the literal sense of it until biology eventually prevailed, and they felt the urge to increase the tempo. 

Raquel sat up, her hands on his chest to help her control the depth and the rhythm, and she moaned softly as the new angle allowed him to take her deeper. She slid on him with ease, over and over, minute after minute, his hips matching her movements and causing her breathing to grow fast and irregular. 

From this perspective, Sergio was stunned. His eyes kept roaming over her body, unable to decide what to look at first - the sign of pleasure evinced by her semiclosed eyelids or her blushed cheeks, her round breasts bouncing lightly as a consequence of their groins clashing together or his straight member disappearing into her, the messy hair sticking to her face or her slightly parted lips. She was just too beautiful for him to focus on one spot only. 

Suddenly, he felt the need to give voice to that thought, and the words just rolled off his tongue before he could even think of them. "Raquel, you are stunning." 

She opened her eyes just enough to look at him and gifted him with such a genuine smile that his heart lit up. Again, he couldn't help but wonder what he did to deserve her in his life. 

He moved his hand between her legs, revealing the white marks his grip had left on her hip, as he wanted to drink in more of her beauty. His expectations weren't disappointed when she arched her back at the delightful sensation of his thumb rubbing on her sensitive spot, offering him a new, amazing view of her naked body. 

She breathed hard as she felt the tension start to build up in her lower belly, thanks to the additional stimulation he was providing to her clit. 

"Lean backward a little more," he said in a husky voice, meaning he was getting close to the edge as well. 

She did as he said without questioning, and gasped when his tip brushed against the same delicious spot he had touched with his fingers only minutes ago. How did he know all of that stuff? 

"Oh yes, this feels _so good_ ", she moaned. 

A few more thrusts and he felt her walls contracting around him, the orgasm rushing through her and making her body shake uncontrollably, her nails digging into the skin of his chest. 

He kept stimulating her until she pushed his hand away, too sensitive to be touched now. However, she sank onto him again, and his gaze looked for hers as if asking for permission. 

She nodded. "Don't worry, I'm on the pill." 

Reassured, he thrust into her one, two, three more times, her hips matching his, until his body tensed and he emptied himself inside her, her name leaving his lips like a prayer. 

She went to lay next to him, and for a few long minutes, they just stared at the ceiling, both of them panting. 

"Wow, Sergio," she said, eventually breaking the silence. "Just... wow." 

He didn't answer, but she knew he felt the same way when he enlaced his fingers with hers and brought them to his mouth to kiss the back of her hand. 

Then, a sudden thought hit her, and she added, "Why the hell didn't we do this months ago?"

He chuckled. 

"Well," he teased her as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. "I guess it's because I acted like an asshole, and you were just too proud to admit that you liked me anyway." 

She thought about it for a moment. 

"Yeah, that sounds pretty much like it," she agreed, and even though his affirmation wasn't far from the truth, there wasn't resentment in her voice. She grinned as she leaned in to kiss him. "Still, what was I thinking?!" 

Their lips merged again, and they remained there kissing, giggling, and holding on to each other, happier than they had been in a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would really appreciate it if you took the time to give me some feedback. I'm literally freaking out over here. Thanks <3


	8. Stay with me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I'm so sorry for the wait ( I hate to say this every single time t.t ) but here I am with a new chapter of Prisoner of the Heart. It probably isn't one of my best chapters, but I did my best to finish it before leaving for my vacation, so I really hope you enjoy it!
> 
> A big thank you to Corny_Cornflakes, who proof read this! I don't know what I'd do without her help! <3  
> Also, thank you to RaquelMarquina for her contribution to this chapter! :D

"How did the police find you?"

She was lying next to him on the old gym mattress, with her body pressed to his side, and her arm lazily dropped over his chest. His hand, which had been running up and down her back, gently caressing her bare skin, suddenly stopped. For a moment, Raquel wished she could take back that question, afraid the answer would reopen some still fresh wound in his soul, but then she felt his fingers starting to move again, ever so slowly, and he spoke.

"Do you remember when we spent the night at your house and the morning after I asked you to run away with me?"

She didn't immediately understand what that had to do with his arrest but nodded as images of that day started flooding her mind. How could she ever forget it?

"So, I asked you if you were willing to leave with a mother, a daughter, and a grandmother..."

"...and I said yes." He completed her sentence, a slight smile gracing his lips at the memory of it.

"I remember thinking you were insane for wanting to run away with a complete stranger and her family," she confessed, looking up at him. "Of course, I was just as insane as you."

He smiled softly at those words, tightening his hold around her waist as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. Then, however, she saw his expression darken once again, and prepared herself for whatever would come.

"There's something I didn't tell you back then, for... obvious reasons."

She remained quiet, waiting for him to continue, although he could feel that her body had tensed in his arms. "After the heist, I was supposed to hide with someone else. Not another woman, of course," he quickly added, "but someone I really cared about."

"Who was it?"

He hesitated. "My brother."

"I didn't know you have a brother."

"Had. He's dead now."

"Oh, Sergio..." She raised herself on her elbow to look at him and gently stroked his chest in the attempt to comfort him. "I'm so sorry."

Raquel waited a few moments for him to continue, but he didn't. His gaze was lost on the ceiling above them, his eyes slightly fogged at the memory of his brother.

"Would you like to talk about it?" she asked, wanting to relieve him somehow.

He looked down at her and blinked a few times as if he had just remembered what they were talking about, her voice taking him back to reality. He sighed and ran his fingers in his hair. "Yes, I'm sorry. I still owe you an answer."

"You don't," she said quickly, trying not to show her disappointment in him misunderstanding her words. "Please, forget about my question-"

"No, it's alright," he interrupted her. "You deserve to know what happened and, like it or not, my brother is part of the story."

Of all the conversations he imagined to have with her, he had never thought of this one. He knew that, if he were lucky enough to meet her and get close to her again, they would have to face this talk - she would want to know, and he would have to tell her everything about the heist, his family, and his past. But, somehow, he had never felt the need to go through that moment over and over the way he did with their potential first kiss or the first time they made love to each other, and much less to prepare a script.

He reached for her hand on his chest, subconsciously fidgeting with her fingers as he pondered his next sentence until the storm in his brain finally stopped, and he firmly took her hand in his. He didn't know where to start, so the most logical thing was to commence with the basics.

"My brother was Andrés de Fonollosa."

That hit Raquel like a punch in the stomach.

_Berlin?_

She must have heard wrong.

"Berlin?" she asked out loud. "Berlin was your brother?"

He nodded. "Half brother, to be exact."

Raquel stared at him in astonishment, without being able to say a word as her brain tried to process that information. Berlin. Berlin was Sergio's brother. The disturbing, misogynist, sociopathic man she met inside the Royal Mint was Sergio's brother - the sweet, shy, loving Sergio. Her Sergio. That didn't seem possible.

"We didn't exactly grow up together," he explained as if he could read her mind. "He was born from my mother's first marriage, and after his parents' divorce, he remained with his father in Madrid. When we were little, he used to come over to our house a few times a year for a weekend or during school breaks, but other than that, we didn't get to spend much time together. I really enjoyed his company, though - I liked the idea of having a big brother to play with. But after our mother died - I was five, and he was twelve - he stopped visiting for a while. That same year, I was diagnosed with a rare health condition that forced me in and out of hospitals for most of my childhood. I couldn't get out of bed, and my father had to work hard to pay for my treatments, so I used to spend most of my days alone in my hospital room."

He felt her hand lightly squeeze his own, and her thumb started to draw slow, reassuring circles on his skin. He inwardly thanked her as he went on.

"One day, I was trying to read a picture book a nurse gave me when Andrés showed up with a toy and a bag of candies. From that moment on, he visited me regularly. He helped me keep up with my homework and taught me how to read, played with me, and kept me company during both my good and bad days. Then, five years later, a social worker showed up and said my dad had been shot by a police officer while robbing a bank. That's when I realized it: The adventure stories he used to tell me every night before bed weren't creations of his imagination - he was telling me about the robberies he made to pay for my expensive treatments. I had turned my father into a criminal. For many years I blamed myself for his death, and I don't know what would have been of me if it wasn't for Andrés. He was the only person I had left, and I was the same for him, as his father had ended up in jail. So he took me in, and we lived together for a while. It wasn't easy, at all, and he was still a teenager..."

He told her everything about those years he spent with Andrés, from how hard the first period was to how his brother got involved in criminal activity to pay for their food and his medications. Then, he told her about when he was finally declared healed, and how he planned the Royal Mint heist for over twenty years, as a homage to his father.

As he talked, Raquel felt her heart getting heavier and heavier, and her eyes became watery at the thought of all the sufferance he had to endure in his life. She imagined him as a little kid, stuck in a hospital bed, scared and alone, feeling guilty for something he didn't have any control over. She exhaled and clenched her fists - she was angry, sad, and completely overwhelmed. A kid shouldn't have to go through that. That just wasn't fair.

"As you know, a few years ago, Andrés was diagnosed with Helmer's myopathy, a rare condition our mother suffered from too. Unfortunately, there isn't a long term cure. So after the heist, I went to Palawan with the hope you would find me there," he looked up at her with a bitter smile on his face, "and I took him with me. I did my best to take care of him, but he was getting worse every day. One day, I found out there was a doctor in Germany who was experimenting with a cure, and I convinced Andrés to give it a try. I couldn't bear the fact that he was going to die."

Sergio paused to wipe away the tears running down his cheeks and, mostly, to find the strength to finish his story. "We shouldn't have come back to Europe, ever - that's how I had instructed my team. But the doctor wasn't able to move his whole lab to the Philippines, and even if he were, the local authorities would have been suspicious, so we took the risk and traveled to Hamburg. Andrés got interned in the doctor's clinic under a false name, and we managed to keep his presence a secret for a while. The treatment, though, didn't work as we hoped, and he didn't make it." He paused again. "But I guess someone saw me going in and out of the hospital and alerted the police because I got arrested on that same day, right after his death."

His head was suddenly pounding, and his eyes were burning because of the crying, so he closed them. He felt Raquel's arms rounding him and holding him tight, her hand gently stroking his hair, and an involuntary sob left his lips. When she pressed herself more against him, he couldn't think of doing anything else other than return her embrace and bury his face in her peach-scented hair. They remained in that position, just holding on to each other as if their lives depended on it, unable to let go, until the warmth of her body pressed against his got to calm him down a little. He exhaled and shifted his body just enough inches to be able to look at her face, only to realize that her expression was just as heartbreaking.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to make you sad."

"Don't be sorry," she whispered as she moved her hand to caress his moistened cheek. "What happened to you is... horrible and unfair, but I'm glad you shared it with me. I only wish I could do something to make you feel better."

Having her looking at him like that, with a mix of sadness, care, and pain in her eyes, made something stir inside him. Had anyone ever looked at him so intensely before? He took a moment to review each person he had met in his life, but couldn't find anyone who had looked at him the way she was - with so much empathy. No, she was the only one.

"Just... don't ever leave me," he breathed out, suddenly more aware than ever of how important she was to him.

Her features softened even more, and she bit her lower lip as the tears threatened to start falling again.

"I won't," she responded, and there wasn't hesitation in her voice. "I'm not going anywhere."

She leaned in to press a kiss on his lips as if to seal that promise, and he shifted her closer into his arms, feeling his heart bursting with love for her as he kissed her back. He hid his face in the hook of her shoulder once again and breathed her in, almost desperately. He needed to feel her close, to smell her scent, to feel the softness of her skin on his own, and to know that she - the only person he cared about among the seven billion on Earth - wasn't going to leave him. He needed her because he felt like chocking, and she was pure oxygen.

"You know, you are the most beautiful thing that happened to me."

Her heart leaped. "It doesn't look like you have many other things to compare me with."

"Trust me, you are."

Raquel didn't object any further. Instead, she closed her eyes and let herself get lost in the intimacy of that embrace as she tried to focus on the bliss of being in his arm rather than what he had just told her. She didn't want to cry - she didn't want _him_ to cry - and knew that if she gave in, he would too.

The delightful sense of relaxation his body gave her was making it extremely difficult to separate from him and get up, her mind getting sleepy from the rhythmical sound of his heartbeats like it was the most beautiful of the lullabies. She didn't know what time it was, but she was sure it was quite late, and she should better go back to work before anyone would notice her absence. Yet, neither her brain nor her body seemed to respond properly.

"I should go," she whispered, without making any actual effort to accomplish that.

She felt his lips brushing her neck even so lightly and plant a soft kiss on her skin. "Can you stay one more minute?"

She shouldn't – but what harm wouldonly one more minute do?

"Alright. One minute."

*****

_Fuck._ Raquel's quick steps echoed in the long corridors of the prison as she walked her way back to the central area of the building, her hands fumbling with the buttons of her shirt. She could hear Sergio walking behind her, struggling to keep up her pace. _Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck._ They had fallen asleep, and when she had finally opened her eyes, it was past noon, which meant she had missed a whole morning of work, and she was in trouble. _A lot_ of trouble.

She was about to pull open the door that separated them from the atrium when he called her name.

"Raquel, wait!"

"Sergio, I have to go!"

"Your hair -"

He crossed the few feet between them and reached behind her head to gently pull some strands of hair out the collar of her shirt and let them fall on her back. Then, his fingers ran quickly and smoothly through her messy hair, untangling and flattening it to the way it was earlier that morning.

"That's better now," he said once he was done and explained, "You had sex hair."

Even though her main concern was to get back to work as soon as possible, Raquel couldn't help but giggle. She raised on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Thanks. I'll see you later." She kissed him one last time and disappeared into the atrium.

Sergio remained staring at the door for a few moments as the most irrational part of his brain wanted him to rush behind her and take her into his arms once more, press his mouth on hers, and never let her go. How could he miss her already? That wasn't possible - not after only a handful of seconds of not seeing her. Or touching, kissing, holding her. Yet, he could feel a bittersweet sensation expanding inside his stomach and taking over him – he already missed her like crazy. He missed her the way one would miss the warmth of their bed after getting up on a cold morning, or the way one could miss their favorite book after turning the last page, or the way a smoker missed the nicotine right after putting out a cigarette. What had that woman done to him?

He sighed and shook his head. He couldn't follow her. Instead, he wandered around for a while, unable to think of anything else other than her face, her voice, her hair, her scent, _her_. His Raquel. He couldn't stop thinking about her even if he wanted to - in fact, he didn't want to. There was something about basking in the thought of her that made him feel light and utterly happy, and he was determined to make it last for as long as he could. Or at least until he could see her again.

When he arrived in front of the cafeteria, his stomach grumbled, and he poked his head inside. The room was crowded, noisy, and smelly, both because of the food and the combination of the hot day with the prisoners' poor hygiene. _Disgusting._ He took a step back and considered skipping lunch when his belly growled in protest, so he had to give up. He had barely eaten anything at breakfast - a grin spread on his face at the reason for it - and for as much as he didn't like the idea of entering that room, his body demanded food. He spent as little time as he could in there, sitting alone and focusing on finishing his bowl of overcooked spaghetti before anyone could sit at his table and strike up a conversation. In a few minutes, he was already heading towards the backyard, where he sat on the ground by himself. He closed his eyes, enjoying the sunrays warming his skin, and his thoughts finally drifted back to the woman he had spent the whole morning with.

The events of the previous hours begun to spin inside his head in a vortex of emotions: the kisses in the hallway, them entering the old gym, her soft lips on his, her hands roaming all over his skin and his own on hers, Raquel's body sinking onto the mattress and the sweet taste of her on his mouth, her hips lowering on him over and over again, taking him deep as delicious moans left her lips - god, how he wished they could do it again in that very moment, how he wanted to hear her screaming his name as he thrust into her again, and again, and again. For a moment, he considered getting up and finding a more private place to continue that thought, his pants a little tight around his groin, but then the memory of the conversation about his brother painfully found its way back to him. For how relieving it had been to tell her the story of his childhood, and for how much it felt like the first step of letting all of his pain finally go, he couldn't help thinking about Raquel's gaze as she listened to him. The disconcerted look on her face had been incredibly painful to watch, and at the mere memory of it, he felt the urge to take her into his arms. He looked up, scanning the place around him in the faint hope to spot her black uniform somewhere among all of the orange ones of the other prisoners, but she wasn't there. Actually, none of the guards were there. _How weird._ He frowned as he remembered not seeing any in the cafeteria either. However, he was too absorbed into his love bubble to pay much attention to it, and in no time, his thoughts were with Raquel once more, and another memory hit him. _I'm not going anywhere._ He smiled as her voice echoed in his ears, and a sudden feeling of joy burst in his heart. The old Sergio would have wondered about the rollercoaster of emotions he was going through, denying that a human being could be able to go from feeling light-headed to nostalgic, horny - not that he ever felt horny before Raquel anyway - then sad, and then incredibly happy and lucky in such a short time-lapse. But the new Sergio didn't care - Raquel wasn't going to leave him, and that was a reason enough to be happy. She loved him just as much as he loved her. Yes, she loved him. _She loved him_. His smile widened as those words sounded so amazingly good in his mind. So good that he didn't notice the three men approaching him until their shadows appeared on the ground in front of him.

"Feeling happy today, Marquina?"

Sergio's head shot up, and he saw El Diablo, accompanied by two of the three prisoners who had sent him to the hospital two months earlier. His features hardened. "It's none of your business."

"Well, I hope you enjoy it while it lasts," El Diablo grinned. "You never know what life has in store for you."

His henchmen let out a low laugh and gestured a finger drawing a line over their throats. _Joder,_ not again _._

Sergio got up on his feet, trying his best not to look intimidated as his brain worked frantically in search of a way out. He wasn't going to give in this time. If only he weren't outnumbered... Then, he unexpectedly grinned.

"I suggest you leave me alone," he said firmly, "If you don't want to find out what I have in store for you."

The men in front of him roared with laugher.

"You?!" El Diablo said, narrowing his eyes. "Do you really think you could ever win over me, _Profesor_?"

Sergio took a quick glance at something - someone - behind the trio, and before he could answer, a voice interrupted them.

"Are you looking for something, Velázquez?"

El Diablo turned around and fixed his gaze on the man, a smirk spread across his face. "Hello, Marseille. How's your rat?"

Marseille's jaw tightened. "She's a ferret. You're the only rat here, and you better go back to the hole you came out from."

"Seems like you got a little friend, hm?" El Diablo turned back to Sergio, and the two men by his side sneered again. "That's good, so you'll have some company at the hospital this time. Or at the graveyard."

"What do you want?"

"I heard you opened up a drug business." El Diablo shrugged casually despite the sharp tone of his voice. "Unfortunately, there's no room for two dealers in this prison, and this is my ground already. I thought you wouldn't cause me any more problems after our little - uhm - chat, but I guess you are not as smart as everybody thinks. Or did you forget what happened last time we didn't get along?"

"I didn't," Sergio replied, his gaze firm on him. "And I didn't forgive you, either."

El Diablo laughed. "I don't give a shit about your forgiveness - I'm not looking for that. What I want is to have my costumers back."

"You should go talk to them, then."

Sergio looked up at him defiantly and saw El Diablo's face turning red with anger. The man took a few steps in his direction, getting so close for Sergio to be able to see the bristly black hair growing out of his nose.

"Listen up, you nerdy motherfucker. I'll give you two options." He raised one finger and held it in front of Sergio's face. "First option. You give me all the drugs you have left and get out of my way once and for all. In return, I'll be nice and let you walk away on your legs." A second finger appeared next to the first one. "Or option number two. I break every single bone in your body, including the tiny stick you have between your legs, and take the drugs by myself."

Sergio didn't move, except for his lips stretching out into a smirk, and El Diablo frowned. He was about to say something but fell quiet as he felt something sharp poking his ribs, and Marseille's voice whispered behind him, "Not so soon."

For just a moment, the air around them remained tense and quiet, and then El Diablo nudged backward, pointing at Marseille's stomach, but missed him. Instead, he received a kick that pushed him forward and almost made him fall to the ground. When he turned around to fight Marseille back, he saw that a little crowd of prisoners had formed around them, and looked in disconcert at how some of them were holding his men still, leaving him undefended.

"What are you idiots doing?!" El Diablo shouted in their direction, a hint of concern in his voice. "You are supposed to be by my side!"

"He treats us better than you do," a young man replied, and another voice immediately raised from the crowd, "He doesn't humiliate us."

The people around murmured approvingly.

"Or hit us."

"Or force us to do things we don't want to do."

"And he sells good stuff."

Other murmurs of approval rose from the crowd. Some of them muttered 'yeah' or 'right' while others just nodded, but it was clear that they all agreed.

In front of those affirmations, El Diablo's gaze shifted back to Sergio, his teeth grinding and his nails buried into his palms.

"I don't think you're in the position to dictate the rules anymore," Sergio stated, his eyebrows arched. "This is why I will add a third option to the list. You turn around and leave, and take your minions with you, while I keep doing what the hell I want because this isn't your ground anymore. You threatened me, used me, beat me, and this is what you get back, like it or not. And, for god's sake, do yourself a favor and open a book for the first time in your life - the penis isn't a bone."

El Diablo remained quiet for a moment, taking side glances to the people around them, to Marseille, and then Sergio again. Finally, he stood up, his eyes flashing with hate. "This isn't over, Marquina."

His spat hit the ground only a few inches from Sergio's feet, and he walked away, closely followed by the other two.

Sergio watched as they disappeared inside the building, then turned to look at the inmates celebrating El Diablo's first defeat, and a grin spread across his face. His plan worked.

*****

As soon as Raquel entered the guards' room, she was run over by a wave of red hair and felt a pair of arms wrapping tight around her body. _What the-_ She remained still, and it took her a moment to understand whose arms were greeting her with such enthusiasm. The reason for it, though, was still a mystery to her.

"Raquel! I was so worried about you!" She heard Alicia's voice from behind her shoulder as she squeezed her. "Are you alright?"

Raquel frowned. She was concerned about the consequences of missing a whole work shift because of how busy she was having sex with a man she was supposed to be watching - and, oh, how she had watched him - but other than that, she was fine. So why was Alicia scanning her head to toe?

"I'm perfectly fine, thanks."

Only once her friend took a step back, Raquel noticed that the room was filled with people, and everyone was staring at her. Her eyes fell on Prieto, who was standing in a corner, arm-crossed, with his gaze fixed on her. _Great_ , she thought, _now everyone will watch as I get fired._

"Prieto, I'm incredibly sorry-"

To her surprise, he interrupted her with a gesture of his hand, and for a moment, she thought he would ask her to pack her stuff and leave without hearing reasons. Instead, he asked, "What happened?"

_Yes, Raquel, what happened?_

She bit the inside of her cheek, desperately looking for a believable excuse, and had just opened her mouth to speak when she was interrupted again.

"Did anyone hurt you?" Suaréz inquired, visibly concerned.

"No, I'm-"

"What happened then?"

"We have looked for you everywhere," another policeman added.

"I, uhm... I wasn't feeling well." She finally said, trying to look confident enough for them to believe her. "It must have been something I ate - probably the mussels I had last night weren't fresh. And, uhm, I forgot to charge my walkie, so I couldn't reach anyone."

Prieto sighed. "Next time you decide to disappear, Murillo, try to warn us somehow - charging your transmitter and using it would be good in the first place. I had everyone  leaving  their occupations to look for you."

He clearly looked annoyed by the situation but didn't seem intentioned to fire her, and that was enough for Raquel to sigh in relief. She didn't allow herself to relax, though, until Prieto was out of the room, which happened several minutes afterward, and not before he had lectured her about the importance of communicating her movements to her colleagues. Then, one by one, all of her coworkers left. Some of them gently patted her shoulder on their way out, while others looked sideways at her in a way that made Raquel almost hear their judgemental thoughts. Suaréz, who was at the end of the line, unexpectedly threw his arms around her and held her for a time she was sure was way longer than what was socially acceptable.

"I'm so glad that you're okay," he whispered in her ear and placed a kiss on her cheek that made her whole body shudder.

"Uhm, thanks," she muttered as she slipped out of his arms, the contact with his body making her uncomfortable.

Once he finally closed the door behind him, Raquel exhaled loudly and let herself fall on a chair with Alicia staring at her from the other side of the table.

"Woah, Suaréz is really hitting on you, isn't he?" the redhead commented with a quick glance at the closed door. "I couldn't tell if he was more glad for you to be safe or for having an excuse to put his hands on you."

Raquel winced. "He makes me sick."

"He could come useful for a good bang, though."

Alicia tilted her head, thoughtful, and Raquel pulled a corner of her mouth in disgust. She decided to change the subject.

"Why was everyone so worried?" she asked. "I understand Prieto being upset, but to make everyone look for me sounds a bit exaggerated."

"We thought something happened to you," Alicia explained. "You stopped answering your transmitter, and we couldn't find you anywhere. And this isn't exactly a safe place, Raquel - it's not like staying in a tent and negotiating with criminals from a reasonably safe distance. Here you walk among criminals. It wouldn't have been the first time for a guard to be attacked by a prisoner. You need to be careful."

Raquel nodded - that made perfect sense. "You are right. I'll be careful."

As she thought about it, she suddenly felt incredibly dumb for never considering that before. Of course, she knew that Sergio would never hurt her, but her colleagues didn't. She would have to be more careful in the future. _In the future_. She bit her lower lip - was she seriously planning to sneak out and have sex with him again? She must have turned crazy because that was the only explanation. Yet, that idea sounded so amazingly tempting...

"Why do you look so happy now?"

Alicia's voice interrupted her train of thought, and she looked up only to find her friend's narrowed eyes glaring at her suspiciously.

Raquel shrugged and cursed herself for not being able to stop the silly smile that had formed on her lips. "I don't."

"Yes, you do," Alicia insisted, mischievously. "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing."

"You're lying."

"I'm not lying!"

"Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

Alicia pointed her finger at her, and Raquel burst out laughing. "Seriously? How old are you, five?"

Alicia grinned. "Still, you are lying."

"Think whatever you want," Raquel chuckled and got up. "Prieto said I could leave earlier today, so I'm out of here."

Her friend's teasing words followed her to the hallway, and she shook her head at how obstinate Alicia could be sometimes. It wouldn't be easy to hide the truth from her.

For a moment, Raquel considered saying goodbye to Sergio before going home, but she eventually decided they had already taken too many risks for the day. So she changed into her regular clothes and headed to the parking lot. Finally alone in the privacy of her car, she leaned into the driver's seat as she breathed out the tension of the last hour. Then, she suddenly started giggling.

She made love with Sergio and almost got fired because of it.

She made love with the man she had cried all of her tears over in the past months.

And it happened in a gym.

The gym of the prison she worked in.

The prison where he was convicted.

The whole situation was just so absurd that she could hardly believe it really happened, and it certainly was the kind of trouble the full-grown woman she considered herself would stay away from. And yet, she was in a parking lot, giggling like a teenager at the memory of Sergio and her, loving each other on a filthy gym mattress, and despite it all, there was only one thing she could think about: She couldn't wait to do it again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said earlier up in the notes, I'm going to take a two weeks vacation. I don't think I'll be able to write during that time, but I'll try to make it up to you by including smut contents in the next chapter! :)
> 
> Kudos and/or comments are always highly appreciated! <3


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